I "subscribe" to this author and publisher for texts on this topic. I like the writing style and layout of the book. There enough explanation to be thorough, and enough practical examples to be useful outside of pure theoretical discussion. Plus, there are plenty of references in the appendix, so those pages are essentially a "Nutshell."

However, I think I prefer the layout of the 9i edition. The flow was nicer: a structured outline, then some examples. In the 10g edition, the flow seems to have changed: a briefer description in paragraph form, then a lot more examples.

Let me start by stating that I agree with Frank N. Loreti's review of this book, and one part in particular: this book was not written by educators. And I would like to add that they don't seem to be terribly good writers, either.

Some examples from the first three chapters (plus one page of chapter 4) to illustrate my point:

On page 72, it reads: "Boolean variables, when combined with an IF-THEN block, do not need to be provided with a comparison value if only comparing to TRUE." First, Boolean variables aren't "combined" with an IF-THEN, they are *used* as part of the [Boolean] condition of the IF-THEN. And second, writing that they don't need to be provided is, educationally speaking, not very wise; it suggests that it's a specific feature of the language, a short cut if you will, when in fact it's a mere consequence of how the evaluation of Boolean expressions work.

On pages 108 and 109, I think it's a glaring omission that the writers don't mention whether the PL/SQL CASE statement uses 'fall-thru' or not. For several reasons, I don't expect this to be the case, but if it's not used, how is the 'CASE with different variables' treated? In other words, in the example at the bottom of page 109, is only Steve printed, or all names? Come to think of it: in the example before it, what happens if the conditions in the CASE overlap? (E.g., change the second WHEN-condition to
v_price BETWEEN 30 AND 50
What happens then if v_price equals 35? Will only the first WHEN-statement block be executed? Will both be executed? Will an exception be thrown? Less likely, but not impossible: maybe a compile-time error is given?) It's hard for me to understand how any decent programmer can overlook the fact that these 'details' need to be discussed.

On page 110, loops are discussed: "We cover three different types here: Simple loops. The most basic kind of loop, they include LOOP, END LOOP, and some method of EXIT." Since 'different types' of loops are discussed, the plurality in 'Simple loops' suggests that there are several types of simple loops --and it seems they are called the 'LOOP', and 'END LOOP'... or something. Of course, this is not the case: there's only one type of simple loop. It starts with the keyword LOOP which is followed by a statement block that may/should contain an EXIT statement, and it ends with the keywords END LOOP.

You don't have to be a professional writer to sense that you can't end a section with a couple of bullet points (just like, apparently and unfortunately, you can't end a chapter without a useless summary) so you'll need at least an extra line of text, but unfortunately the writers of this book don't have the finesse to cross that bridge unnoticed. For example, at the beginning of chapter 4 a list of topics for that chapter is given in bullet points, followed by the following recommendation:

"As these features are demonstrated, think about how they can be used to improve the functionality, performance and design of your applications."

It's suggestions like these that simply make my toes curl.

Add to all this the absence of a decent structure (the books keeps jumping from simple features to advanced features and back, fragmenting the explanation of both), and the authors should consider themselves lucky I'm still giving this book 3 stars...

Let me start by stating that I agree with Frank N. Loreti's review of this book, and one part in particular: this book was not written by educators. And I would like to add that they don't seem to be terribly good writer's, either.

Some examples from the first three chapters to illustrate my point:

On page 72, it reads: "Boolean variables, when combined with an IF-THEN block, do not need to be provided with a comparison value if only comparing to TRUE." First, Boolean variables aren't "combined" with an IF-THEN, they are *used* as part of the [Boolean] condition of the IF-THEN. And second, writing that they don't need to be provided is, educationally speaking, not very wise; it suggests that it's a specific feature of the language, a short cut if you will, when in fact it's a mere consequence of how the evaluation of Boolean expressions work.

On pages 108 and 109, I think it's a glaring omission that the writers don't mention whether the PL/SQL CASE statement uses 'fall-thru' or not. For several reasons, I don't expect this to be the case, but if it's not used, how is the 'CASE with different variables' treated? In other words, in the example at the bottom of page 109, is only Steve printed, or all names? Come to think of it: in the example before it, what happens if the conditions in the CASE overlap? (E.g., change the second WHEN-condition to
v_price BETWEEN 30 AND 50
What happens then if v_price equals 35? Only the first WHEN-statement block gets executed? Both get executed? An exception is thrown? Less likely, but not impossible: a compile-time error is given?) It's hard for me to understand how any decent programmer can overlook the fact that these 'details' need to be discussed.

On page 110, loops are discussed: "We cover three different types here: Simple loops. The most basic kind of loop, they include LOOP, END LOOP, and some method of EXIT." Since 'different types' of loops are discussed, the plurality in 'Simple loops' suggests that there are several types of simple loops --and it seems they are called the 'LOOP', and 'END LOOP'... or something. Of course, this is not the case: there's only one type of simple loop. It starts with the keyword LOOP which is followed by a statement block that may/should contain an EXIT statement, and it ends with the keywords END LOOP.

You don't have to be a professional writer to sense that you can't end a section with a couple of bullet points (just like, apparently and unfortunately, you can't end a chapter without a useless summary), but the writers of this book don't have the finesse to cross that bridge unnoticed. For example, at the beginning of chapter 4 a list of topics for that chapter is given in bullet points, followed by the following recommendation:

"As these features are demonstrated, think about how they can be used to improve the functionality, performance and design of your applications."

It's suggestions like these that simply make my toes curl.

Add to all this the absence of a decent structure (the books keeps jumping from simple features to advanced features and back, fragmenting the explanation of both), and the authors should consider themselves lucky I'm still giving this book 3 stars...

When I started studing PL/SQL...
I got recommanded this book.
Now I satisfied my choice because of contents of this book.
I recommand this book.

This is the best pl/sql book ever!! It's a complete reference for PL/SQL programation lenguaje, that covers from the basics topics like data types to advanced fueatures like inter-session comunication. Its includes hundreds of examples, online code and a complete reference for Oracle 10g packages and utilitys. This is the ultimate PL/SQL book.

This is book did help me learn PL/SQL; however, it did it in a very painful manner. The book could have easily been condensed to half the size and still convey the same information, only clearly and to the point. Many of the chapters have long coding examples that are followed by a line-by-obvious-line description about what is going on. It's tempting to skip the code explanations; however, there is the occasional hidden piece of useful information in them that forces you to sift through the junk. To make matters worse, much of the code is needlessly commented. You know what type of comments I'm talking about; there will be a comment that reads '-- declare a variable of type varchar' and then a declaration immediately afterward. Wow, thanks for doubling the code size and killing some more trees. Topping that off, in some of the examples, the comments don't actually match what the code is doing. Grrr.

I invested a lot of time in reading this book and after it was all said and done my feeling on it was, meh, I guess I learned something. The book is pretty good, it's just needlessly big, too big and time consuming for the value that it brings to your skill set.

The book is a large survey of the PL/SQL language and introduces many new things that have changed with 10g. But there is a major problem with the book, which runs throughout almost all Oracle Documentation.

The book is written more as a corporate training manual than that of a programming text book. As probably everyone who ever took a training class from their company knows, training is often done by people who not only are not educators, but may not actually understand or have even used the subject of the training. It is intentional that such people do not state the concepts abstractly - they only know concrete examples and maybe only the example in their pre-written material.

This book fits this description to a T. It does not specify the correct syntax except in examples. It does not specify the qualifications and conditions governing the language elements or the examples. As such, unless you are essentially copying an example almost verbatim, you have no real knowledge of whether your code will compile, let alone work as intended. As an example consider their discussion of SELECT statements. They speak about the Select clause, the INTO clause, etc. Nowhere do they state that the list of items in the INTO clause should separated by commas. Although most people could correctly guess that the comma is the separator, you need to find an example to show you that. The book is rampant with omissions like this. Two pages later, they use an OPEN - FOR construct in an example without introducing it. That it can be used dynamically, i.e. with the query in a character string constructed at run time, is not only not mentioned in this section, but is not even mentioned in the chapter on Dynamic SQL.

This should be looked upon as a book of (simple) examples. It should be no one's text or reference.

Book incorporated more detailed features and explanations with up to date technology examples (covering 9i and 10g in depth). I think I should not only use this book for my certification but also keep it with me as a reference guide too.

So far what I felt in most of the chapters, it really require previous background on the topics Or it takes little more time to cover some areas (new features).

If you can download the entire 10g distribution, set it up, find
the author/book sample database, oracle text (?) and .....
then the book is great. One day later ... aaaaa.
I was learning sql on 10g
Express fine before this. These guys really need a
supplimental read.me. There wasn't much in their samples download,
which by the way, isn't with all the other oracle pubs,
you have to go to 'lastest' publications.

I used this Book from chapters 1-4 and 6-10 and chapter 16 to get through the exam. It is really good for that purpose.

I have attempted to learn pl/sql for a few years now and have been unable to find a book that pulls it all together. This book gently introduces you to a topic and then then shows you how to apply it. The comical nature of the author also makes the book interesting and fun. I believe its a must read for anyone attempting to learning pl/sql.

I am using it in the context of a text book under one of the authors. My only complaint with the book is that some of the topics seems to be shallow in content (for example records in chapter 5). As a person just learning PL/SQL I rather like the fact that it covers many topics, and takes the time to show example after example with explanations. The organization seems to be fairly uniform. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn PL/SQL as it has helped me immensely. I have found the index to be rather lacking (hence the four stars).

I bought this book hoping it would help me pass the 1Z0-147 Oracle PL/SQL certification test, and it did. First the bad news: chapters five and six are horrible. The person that wrote these two chapters writes in the most pedantic way possible. Pages upon pages are filled with highly repetitive code, with each example followed by a detailed analysis of every statement! Compare this to the coding examples in other chapters, where statements of interest are highlighted and then followed by descriptions of their significance. If you want a laugh, check out page 225, where the author of chapter six says, "A problem with programming books is that concepts need to be illustrated with an economy of space." Wow.

I read the first ten chapters of this book sequentially in order to prepare for the exam, and (with the obvious exception of chapters five and six) really enjoyed the material. I think the book is well written: the organization is excellent and the examples are very clear and concise. I especially liked the summaries comparing and contrasting one construct or approach to another. The book is addressed to individuals that have programming and SQL experience, but I think it could be used by a database beginner as well.

If you're studying for 1Z0-147, my advice is: read this book (chapters 1 - 10, 16) then read the Oracle Application Developer's Guide - Fundamentals, Part II: PL/SQL (Procedure & Packages, Dynamic SQL, and Triggers). Getting an online study guide helps as well as you can train for the exam is an environment virtually identical to the one in which the exam is given.

All-in-all this is a solid book. I use it for reference regularly, and have used a few of the examples in my development. I found that sections that overlapped with Oracle docs were more in-depth here (I finally understand lob storage). There were a few areas that I would have liked to see more coverage on, such as error handling.

I did find a few typos in the text, but they seemed to be addressed in the errata. (...)

The things I don't write every day in a programming language are the most important to have in a good book. This book provides those PL/SQL things quickly because it is well organized and has great examples.

The online code was hard to find but the author's review here on Amazon.com provided it. The code examples are useful and easy to apply to real problems. The coverage of records, collections, triggers and LOBs are particularly helpful.

The how-to configure Oracle Heterogeneous Server was good to slightly improve marshalling of Oracle Applications concurrent programs. Also, the Java library example to read local files was useful.

This just paraphrases the "PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference" freely available from Oracle. In contrast, the hardly-known "Oracle PL/SQL by Example" by Rosenzweig (Prentice Hall) has better examples and friendlier discussion of more commonly used features of PL/SQL; it complements the Oracle documentation with well-chosen emphasis. I bought both books a year ago and seldom refer to this one any more because it has never yielded useful information.

This book covers advanced topics that "Oracle PL/SQL by Example" does not, such as external subprograms, dynamic SQL, and objects in the database, but since those topics are (of course) also covered in the free Oracle user's guide, I cannot recommend buying this. The PDF file from Oracle can at least be searched electronically. On the other hand, printing some Oracle PDFs and having them spiral-bound at Kinko's cost me over $20 each, so if you need a paper copy the price of the book becomes a bit more feasible.

This just paraphrases the "PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference" freely available from Oracle. In contrast, the hardly-known "Oracle PL/SQL by Example" by Rosenzweig (Prentice Hall) has better examples and friendlier discussion of more commonly used features of PL/SQL; it complements the Oracle documentation with well-chosen emphasis. I bought both books a year ago and seldom refer to this one any more because it has never yielded useful information.

This book covers advanced topics that "Oracle PL/SQL by Example" does not, such as external subprograms, dynamic SQL, and objects in the database, but since those topics are (of course) also covered in the free Oracle user's guide, I cannot recommend buying this. The PDF file from Oracle can at least be searched electronically.

This book does a great job of covering all of the PL/SQL language, as well as covering pointers about SQL Plus and some preliminary config. It does a good job of covering basic and fundamental PL/SQL, as well as covering newer features for those of us that have been coding in it for years.

Newbeeis and Vets will both get a lot from this book.

I bought this book as the reviews were good but I was disappointed with the online code. There is no structure to the examples used to illustrate the concepts. Many times I have had to painfully create the correct tables before the examples work.
Also I am finding several bugs in the examples. Looks like they are not well tested.

Very good book!!

If you are a beginner in PL/SQL, this should be your first book to learn PL/SQL. It is very organized, ranging from the basics to the more advanced topics.
If you plan to become an expert PL/SQL developer, you must combine this book with Steven Feuerstein's "Oracle PL/SQL Programming 3rd edition" and "Oracle PL/SQL Developer Workbook".

We had a great time writing this book, and trust you will find it useful in your PL/SQL development. This book is a principle rewrite including coverage of beginning, intermediate, and advanced features. Some of the highlights are:

* Demonstration of using JDeveloper as an interface for PL/SQL development, including debugging
* Expanded chapters discussing Records & Collections
* Coverage of external routines that you will not find anywhere else
* Two chapters on Object-Oriented Programming with PL/SQL
* LOBs, LOBs, and more LOBs, including indexing using Oracle Text
* Scheduling tasks using DBMS_LOB and DBMS_SCHEDULER and using UTL_SMTP and UTL_MAIL
* Use of built-in packages like DBMS_PIPE and DBMS_ALERT with examples you can use in your own development

DEVELOPERS: Use this text as prep for certification, programming ideas, or use our online reusable code for your own application designs!

DBA's: Develop toolkits for your database, understand PL/SQL performance features, use DBMS_SCHEDULER/DBMS_JOB for your own task scheduling, and use UTL_MAIL/UTL_SMTP for generating mail messages.

EDUCATORS: This book is easily adapted for the classroom, and is already in use by top technical universities to teach programming concepts and PL/SQL.

To get the most from this book, get the online code. It has always been available from Oracle Press at www.OraclePress.com, but is also available at www.PLSQLBook.com. If you have any difficulties in getting the code, or have feedback on this book, contact Feedback@PLSQLBook.com.

Thanks, and happy reading!

I got the book for some of the new 10g features and have found it helpful. The examples were very great once I found them. After some digging I found the code for the examples online, but according to amazon there was supposed to be a cd...WHERE??

I recommend the book, but know that you need to download the examples (nice format for the code btw).

I've only been completely through various sections that are relevant to projects that I am now working on. However, even though it isn't written for the novice, the general info has already proven to be an incredible refresher that takes the reader into great depth and with a wide variety of real world examples that make sense and work. No more old broken examples that never did work. Yipee!!!

Of particular interest to me is the information on working with different composite data types. Also, if you want solid and extensive info on handling exceptions with PL/SQL, I highly recommend the book. From a readability standpoint, it is by far the best Oracle book that I've come across, taking rather dry confusing information, organizing it, and laying it out in a logical and useable fashion.

Managers... know this book since it will be the title your new 10g PL/SQL hires will have been taught from. Particularly advantageous to those who teach will be NOT having to rewrite examples and the resulting loss of hair and sleep.

Kudos

SQL developers experienced with non-Oracle databases or Oracle developers who are looking for a good reference manual should definitely pick up a copy of this book. Inexperienced SQL developers will probably get more out of Oracle Press' other excellent book PL/SQL 101.

This book begins exactly the way experienced developers would expect-it starts out at a running pace. The book takes the next hundred-or-so pages just discussing PL/SQL basics. Where this book excels is in its examples. Each and every PL/SQL principle is clearly illustrated with many clear and relevant examples. The author then begins into a discussion of advanced PL/SQL techniques, which includes a discussion of cursors, built-in functions, and records.

The middle section of the book covers management and syntax of Oracle packages and functions. This excellent discussion covers such issues as package scope and permissions. This discussion naturally leads into advanced PL/SQL techniques including transactions, pipes, and various built-in DBMS packages. Finally, the book rounds out its PL/SQL discussions by reviewing use of Large Objects (LOB). In this section, the author discusses use and retrieval of data in this format.

I would highly recommend this book to experienced Oracle or even non-Oracle developers who want to sharpen their PL/SQL skills or who are looking for a really good PL/SQL reference. This is a must-have book for anyone serious about their PL/SQL development work.