I read the reviews posted above, and was discouraged, but I needed an Oracle reference right away and this was the only book available at the library. Just as one person said, the first 2 chapters aren't wholly necessary and promote Oracle a lot. On the other hand, the book is printed by the Oracle Press. Chap. 3 provides details on Oracle's implementation of a DB, and Chap. 4 is where it *really* begins.

It is a lot at once for a true novice. I'm not so bad -- I had a pretty good crash course on relational DB ideas and SQL in 2 lectures of a web programming class once, for use with mySQL. This book is good enough to explain the Oracle side of things. And the writing isn't all that bad, i.e. it's more than just a copy of the manuals, IMO. It suits me well enough as an intro to the Oracle syntax and way of doing things.

Being new to oracle databases this book basically highlighted the new features of oracle 9i while attempting to provide a beginners overview of the Oracle database.

The book also does not provide a download of the databases used in the code examples. As a true beginner, i would have liked to follow the code examples in the book, and try out SQL commands. This would have provided me a better understanding of what the author was explaining, as well as 'try out' the code examples.

However, if you are seekeing OCP certification and have a fundamental understanding of SQL and databases this book may assist you with converting to the Oracle structure. I've read the whole book without any Oracle or database experience, and was able to gain a better grasp of the architecture during OCP training courses.



As with all manuals i read there's always useful information contained within them, so i would not completely dismiss this book.

Being new to oracle databases this book basically highlighted the new features of oracle 9i while attempting to provide a beginners overview of the Oracle database.

The book also does not provide a download of the databases used in the code examples. As a true beginner, i would have liked to follow the code examples in the book, and try out SQL commands. This would have provided me a better understanding of what the author was explaining, as well as 'try out' the code examples.

However, if you are seekeing OCP certification and have a fundamental understanding of SQL and databases this book may assist you with converting to the Oracle structure. I've read the whole book without any Oracle or database experience, and was able to gain a better grasp of the architecture during OCP training courses.



As with all manuals i read there's always useful information contained within them, so i would not completely dismiss this book.

Technical computer books are pricey enough that I normally browse a book pretty carefully before deciding to buy it. 'Oracle 9i: A Beginner's Guide', on the other hand, was an impulsive purchase that I regretted immediately. Time spent trying to get some use out of it has only hardened my opinion.

As an experienced Sybase DBA trying then to set up Oracle at home on Linux, I wanted three things primarily: Clear and complete installation and configuration instructions to supplement Oracle's disorganized and hit-or-miss instructions; Clear explanations of Oracle's architecture and unique features; and a good introduction to Oracle PL/SQL.

This book scored only one out of three. The two chapters on PL/SQL I found pretty useful. However, the material on architecture and features is confusing, largely because the writing is not well structured into main topics and subtopics. It also fails to provide good illustrations or to relate the architecture to concerns of installation and configuration. For instance, we are told about the function of redo logs, rollback segments, and undo tablespaces in vague and general terms, whereas a DBA needs to know precisely what they do. Rollback segments and undo tablespaces appear to serve basically the same purpose, according to my reading of the book. Should both be used, else what are the criteria for choosing one over the other? The text never gets there.

The installation instructions deserve a paragraph of their own. The index does not even list "installation", which probably is appropriate since the material covering installation was removed from this edition of the book, albeit incompletely. The 1 1/2 pages (!) beginning on page 84 bear the heading "So, You're the New Oracle 9i Database", perhaps the silliest of the book's many typographical errors. Then the first paragraph tantalizes "We are going to do a high-level, step-by-step walkthrough of putting up your first Oracle 9i database. Get yourself a cup of coffee and a comfortable chair; for those of you in business class, raise the footrestbeforehand...here we go:"...and then...the flight suddenly is over while the coffee is still warm. A note in italics advises the reader that "In earlier releases of the Beginner's Guide, we walked you through the Oracle server installation. With Oracle8i and now Oracle 9i, it's just too big a topic to cover in a book this size."

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I suggest that they should have just made the book bigger, and cut out all the gimpy, insulting attampts at humor, and the long-winded first chapter in praise of Oracle, Inc. Not every book from Oracle Press is this bad. I have browsed 'Oracle 9i DBA Handbook' by Kevin Loney and Marlene Theriault, and it is far better written, concise, organized, and informative (As always, take a look and make sure it covers the material you need). See also O'Reilly's 'Oracle 9i Essentials', or better yet the new edition for 10g.

Technical computer books are pricey enough that I normally browse a book pretty carefully before deciding to buy it. 'Oracle 9i: A Beginner's Guide', on the other hand, was an impulsive purchase that I regretted immediately. Time spent trying to get some use out of it has only hardened my opinion.

As an experienced Sybase DBA trying then to set up Oracle at home on Linux, I wanted three things primarily: Clear and complete installation and configuration instructions to supplement Oracle's disorganized and hit-or-miss instructions; Clear explanations of Oracle's architecture and unique features; and a good introduction to Oracle PL/SQL.

This book scored only one out of three. The two chapters on PL/SQL I found pretty useful. However, the material on architecture and features is confusing, largely because the writing is not well structured into main topics and subtopics. It also fails to provide good illustrations or to relate the architecture to concerns of installation and configuration. For instance, we are told about the function of redo logs, rollback segments, and undo tablespaces in vague and general terms, whereas a DBA needs to know precisely what they do. Rollback segments and undo tablespaces appear to serve basically the same purpose, according to my reading of the book. Should both be used, else what are the criteria for choosing one over the other? The text never gets there.

The installation instructions deserve a paragraph of their own. The index does not even list "installation", which probably is appropriate since the material covering installation was removed from this edition of the book, albeit incompletely. The 1 1/2 pages (!) beginning on page 84 bear the heading "So, You're the New Oracle 9i Database", perhaps the silliest of the book's many typographical errors. Then the first paragraph tantalizes "We are going to do a high-level, step-by-step walkthrough of putting up your first Oracle 9i database. Get yourself a cup of coffee and a comfortable chair; for those of you in business class, raise the footrestbeforehand...here we go:"...and then...the flight suddenly is over while the coffee is still warm. A note in italics advises the reader that "In earlier releases of the Beginner's Guide, we walked you through the Oracle server installation. With Oracle8i and now Oracle 9i, it's just too big a topic to cover in a book this size."

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I suggest that they should have just made the book bigger, and cut out all the gimpy, insulting attampts at humor, and the long-winded first chapter in praise of Oracle, Inc. Not every book from Oracle Press is this bad. I have browsed 'Oracle 9i DBA Handbook' by Kevin Loney and Marlene Theriault, and it is far better written, concise, organized, and informative (As always, take a look and make sure it covers the material you need). See also O'Reilly's 'Oracle 9i Essentials', or better yet the new edition for 10g.

I am truly a beginner in Oracle; I have experience as a computer programmer and with SQL Server 2000, but never really have played around with Oracle. So I was looking for a beginner's guide to get me started. Sadly, I picked this one because I thought since it's from Oracle, it would have the best resources at hand.

Almost immediately, I was disappointed: Chapter 1 is a tribute to how amazing Oracle is and how godlike Larry Ellison is and it's filled with pages and pages of revenues and sales. What a waste of paper. Then Chapter 2 tells me how to use newsgroups and Google: more wasted paper. I come to Chapter 3 and I think I finally get into learning something. Then I notice they concentrate on Sun Solaris as the operating system which isn't very helpful to a person trying to learn this on his own at home. What follows is a list of files and processes: very dry and certainly over the head of a beginner trying to start using Oracle. Then on page 84 I read, "In earlier releases of the Beginner's Guide, we walked you through the Oracle server installation. With Oracle 8i and now 9i, it's too big a topic to cover in a book this size." That's how they start out their step-by-step walkthrough of setting up your first Oracle database. Oh, the last step reads, "12. Read the rest of this book." To me, the book wasted 80 pages then tells me installation would take too long. Very disappointing.

At this point, the small jokes the authors throw in are just insulting as the book slips into unreadability.

Perhaps this book is good for someone sitting at an already-configured database terminal at their work running on Solaris. And I would also think you'd have to have some experience running some previous version of Oracle. This book is certainly NOT for beginners. I hope I didn't waste my money so that after I read a REAL beginner's guide, I can come back to this one and learn something.

Wow, there is a lot of unfair bashing on this book.

This book covered exactly what its cover title said...

"...A Beginner's Guide. Learn the essentials of Oracle..."

Learn the essentials of Oracle was described very well. You get the feel of how the internals of Oracle go. If you are in a job interview and the interviewer asks some basics like the SGA, cursor or what is net8? You'll be laughed at for not having this simple yet broad database knowledge. Very few books describes the Oracle internals and general memory structure of all databases. It sure beats reading the white papers and manuals on the Oracle website. Anyway, this was the section that I thought was highly significant and it distingueshed itself from other books. I think some of the bad reviews below were not expecting what the book's title asys. "Learn the essentials of Oracle." If you want to buy a book on how-to write SQL and learn nothing else, then there are some SQL books targeted solely for only SQL writing.

Like title said, the book is for beginner and cover very wide area, It has include everything you need to know such a SGA, redo log, control file. It also cover package, procedure and function, Java and Form 6i. In other word, it cover from DBA to developer and show you the way where you want to move on.

However, each chapter can become a Book itself.

For those people who do not know what oracle is about and what sort of Component is involved as a Oracle DBA or Developer . This is book to go.

For those who are already family and want a detail information on how to Master on a specific tecni such as PL/SQL, DBA. Sorry and this is not the book.

BTW, I think the O'Really PL/SQL is a good book too.

As titled, this book is a BEGINNER's guide. I've been an Oracle DBA for 9 years and am searching for a book to introduce the Oracle database to college students. You are not going to effectively administer Oracle databases by buying this book, however, you are going to be introduced to the concepts and get good introductory examples as well as a guide on where and how to get started.

After only reviewing the book for about 45 minutes, I found some glaring problems.

Over fifty pages to start the book on how to use Google and usenet newsgroups?!? I'm a beginner with Oracle 9i, not with a computer or on the internet. How about save the trees or provide say, ten pages on installation or command line reference (see last point).

On page 11, "The company reaches 4,223 billion in sales" (That's over 4 trillion) Then sales fall to "5,684 million" in the next paragraph. OK.

On Page 63, "NOTE: Even though Oracle runs on a wide assortment of computers, we will concentrate on Sun Solaris..."

Then on to page 287, Oracle Enterprise Manager is breezed over with instructions on how to use it in Win 2K! Most of the screen shots in the book are windows dialogs. Not even a single note on use of the command line tools to start oem!

Skip this one!

I have been developing commercial information systems applications for 14 years and though I have actually worked with Oracle SQL and PL/SQL at the programming level on numerous occasions I really didn't know how this product was structured, put together. This book provided me with the historical and conceptual overview of the Oracle database product and company that I was looking for. I think that this is what the book was written for and for this it deserves 5 stars. I can now map my next steps of study and practice with confidence.

Don't buy this book!!!
It tries to cover everything, but it really covers nothing.
The book is not organized in any way. It talks about a lot of things, but it doesn't really explain anything in detail. The book provides little bit of how-tos without "any" explanation.
Once again, strongly recommend that you don't buy this book.

This book is a nothing but a piece of junk. It covers a lot of basic UNIMPORTANT details. It introduces you to all the different subjects from programming to configuring but doesn't include the information of HOW TO. All talk and no action. A TOTAL WASTE of my time, money and resources. I'm posting this review so in hoping that no one will waste their time and money on this piece of waste. DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!

I really liked this book. We are studying databases and Oracle and I needed a book about Oracle and how to use it.

The book gave me everything I needed. I was able to take the information in the book and create a great basic knowledge of Oracle9i. With this book I was on my way to learning more about Oracle.

I read the reviews here and I have to disagree with the information. I find the book really useful and a great starting point. I was looking for a beginner's guide and that is exactly what I got from the book. Thanks.

I am a beginner in Oracle so that I have bought this book in a hope that it might enlighten me. It did not.

This book does not deliver what it is promising to deliver. Authors try to cover too many subjects, however they end up with incomplete explanations. It does not give you an overview either: a few pictures of trees, but not a big picture of the forest.

Don't waste your money on this one.

This book promises much but in the end fails to deliver.

Oracle started off as a database engine but overtime a lot of products have been added. This book could tie it all together but doesn't; it ends up being an introduction to SQL, PL/SQL and DBA tasks, things which are better handled by specialist books.

Some sections of the book sound like they have been written by the marketing section. The history section completely ignores the importance of Forms 2.3 and 3 in the growth of Oracle, which is probably good because they don't mention the disaster that was Forms 4.0.

I certainly have a problem with the jokes and diversions. As an attempt to excuse a misleading Oracle error message, a whole paragraph is devoted to what happens if your automobile fuel cap is not closed properly. There is a reference to a wild horse chase, to give the wild geese a break. This makes it very difficult for my Japanese colleagues to understand. If I could say one thing to the authors it would be "you are not funny."

If you are very new to Oracle then it may be useful, but for anyone who knows about Oracle (or computers) then it is a waste of time. You will have to go on and read more advanced books anyway, jump the fluff in this book and get stuck into some serious books.

I might give this book to my father so he can get an idea of what I do.