This book is not the best option for a newbie or for someone without access to Oracle. (***From page 12, you need an Oracle database and SQL*Plus to complete the exercises.)
The book is written in a way that the material doesn't make sense without the hands-on. I see that the text includes a lot of exercises but I don't see screen shots.
Last, my text actually seemed photocopied on the inside--the grayscale art seemed like it was fresh from the copy shop...not exactly what I expected.
I wouldn't but this book again.

At least half of the code examples I tried would not run. It is really frustrating to have a training guide where you cannot trust any of the examples to be coded correctly. I am amazed anyone would give this book a positive rating.

At least half of the code examples I tried would not run. It is really frustrating to have a training guide where you cannot trust any of the examples to be coded correctly. I am amazed anyone would give this book a positive rating.

After reading the first 3 chapters of this book, I was thinking to myself "Wow! This book is great". However, moving on to chapter 4, it felt like a bus fell on me. I read the next few chapters in stunned amazement, wondering what happened, and then I discovered it -- the first three chapters had been written by a different author than the current chapters that I was struggling through.

Where the first chapters, written by Jonathan Gennick, had pertinent, precise examples and a good development of the subject matter, the subsequent chapters (4-9), written by Tom Luers, contained error after error with poor development of the subject matter. The naming of variables was confused and the case of variables and keywords changed from example to example (and even within the same example!).

When I started reading this book, I typed all the examples into Personal Oracle to experiment along with the text. In addition, I placed small "sticky" notes on each page where I encountered an error in the text. I found only a few in the first few chapters. However, after hitting chapter 4, I found myself putting notes on at least every other page, and sometimes multiple notes on a single page! After struggling through several chapters of Luers' writing, I could no longer bring myself to type in the examples -- actually, some of the examples were based on tables that had not even been covered yet in the text, making it impossible to try them. Also, because of the huge number of errors, I stopped adding "sticky" notes, lest I run out of my supply.

Sadly, I cannot recommend this book (even though I found the chapters written by Gennick to be very good). If you do buy this book, read chapters 1-3, 10-13, 16-17, and 20-21, and skip the rest.

My final thoughts: I cannot believe that a publisher would sell a book with such an amazing number of errors, or that such a solid technical author would partner with such an incapable one.

I am a professional Accountant/ Auditor (CPA from USA) and heading finance division in a corporate, with a turnover over $ 2 billion. As our organization is undergoing ERP and I have been made as Implementation Committee member from the client side, I have been looking into Oracle. I don't have any knowledge of any programming language except that I am an extensive good user. In order to interact effectively and out of curiosity, I decided to learn Oracle 8i (SQL and PL/ SQL) and Developer 2K. I attended a fortnight training session given to our EDP guys. As the training was meant for those guys who are already in the field, it was not effective upon me and I could not grasp much. Further I was hesitant to ask my doubts, since otherwise it would slower the pace of the training. I purchased various books from Oracle Press but I found the reading was cumbersome, since it had not been built on a good foundation for lay guys like me. In a hard way, I learnt SQL from the training, books and well-learnt friends and was thorough with that, while I was finding PL/SQL as difficult to learn. I came across this book when perusing thru a bookshop. I liked the way it has been organized. It is 21 days course material with 3 to 5 hours each day and built nicely from day 1. In the week I, one learns basics of PL/SQL and building blocks, in week II, he/ she will learn some of the more advanced features and will also learn how to use PL/SQL in conjunction with a data base. In the final week, Oracle's built in packages have been taught. The book is meant for absolute beginners like me (who have some adequate knowledge of SQL). I have been transformed into a person who has a fairly good knowledge of PL/SQL, after fully going thru the book I am able to understand what sort of codes are written by my Oracle friends and consultants. My colleagues and bosses are admiring my PL/SQL knowledge. Often now I have been placed in the Interview committee to select staff for EDP department along with EDP guys and I have been always asking questions from the Q & A, Quiz, exercises material from this book. Probably one of the coming days, I may even head our EDP department, who knows? Over all, this book is excellent for beginners for learning PL/SQL.

I generally agree with the other reviewers on this book - despite some errors, it is a solid set of PL/SQL lessons. Great results can be produced by using the book as designed (download a copy of Personal Oracle, and spend three hours a day hacking the &@:=#! out of it). However, these favorable reviews can be misleading, as they lack a "Who is this book for?" section. Unlike many "Teach Yourself" titles, this is not good reading for the absolute novice. To get the most from this book, you should have:

1. Functional and theoretical knowledge of at least one high-level programming language.

2. A good understanding of database theory and terminology.

3. Some experience with SQL (and ideally with Oracle, but if you can make Access do tricks, you'll be fine).

4. Three weeks off. ;-)

This is a great beginners book for pl/sql syntax, and it is also useful as a quick reference. I found it very helpful when doing advanced pl/sql as well. Overall, an excellent text.

If you, like me, are distracted by printing errors and mistakes, then do not buy this book. Wait for a (much?) later printing. I cannot learn from such a book. This is one of the most disappointing book buys I have made.

This book is pretty good. Each of the 21 lessons takes a couple of hours to read, so the pace is about right. I learned a lot of PL/SQL from this book, so I'm glad I bought it.

The book is pooly edited, though, and is full of errors. A couple of times there were serious errors in the example programs, but they weren't enough to spoil the book.

If you have a little programming experience, you might try just using the PL/SQL chapters in the Oracle8: The Complete Reference. You're going to need a book like that anyway....