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Beginning Oracle PL/SQL gets you started in using the built-in language that every Oracle developer and database administrator must know. Oracle Database is chock-full of built-in application features that are free for the using, and PL/SQL is your ticket to learning about and using those features from your own code. With it, you can centralize business logic in the database, you can offload application logic, and you can automate database- and application-administration tasks.

Author Don Bales provides in Beginning Oracle PL/SQL a fast-paced and example-filled tutorial. Learn from Don´s extensive experience to discover the most commonly used aspects of PL/SQL, without wasting time on obscure and obsolete features.

The author takes his 20+ years of experience and a wealth of statistics he´s gathered on PL/SQL usage over those years and applies the 80/20 rule: cover what´s most needed and used by PL/SQL professionals and avoid what´s not necessary! The result is a book that covers all the key features of PL/SQL without wasting your time discussing esoteric and obsolete parts of the language. Learn what really matters, so that you can get to work feeling confident with what you know about PL/SQL.

Covers the key topics that matter, including variables and datatypes, executing statements, working with cursors, bulk operations, real-world objects, debugging, testing, and more.

Teaches you to write production-level, object-oriented PL/SQL. You´ll explore relational PL/SQL, but unlike most other books on the subject, this one emphasizes the use of PL/SQLs object-oriented features as well.

Guides you in working through real examples of using of PL/SQL. You´ll learn PL/SQL by applying it to real-world business problems, not by heavy theory.

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Chapter 1. Relational SQL

Chapter 2. Blocks, Functions and Procedures

Chapter 3. Types, Variables and Scope

Chapter 4. Single Row Processing

Chapter 5. Multirow Processing

Chapter 6. Object-relational SQL

Chapter 7. Troubleshooting

Chapter 8. Testing

Chapter 9. Documenting

Chapter 10. Examples

Appendix A. How to Download, Install, and Use Oracle

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Donald Bales is a computer applications consultant specializing in the analysis, design, and programming of client-server and web-based distributed systems, systems integration, and data warehousing. Don has over 20 years of experience with Oracle as both a developer and a database administrator, and 10 years of experience with Java. He is currently working on the migration of medical and industrial hygiene systems to a web environment for a major oil company. When he is not developing applications, Donald can often be found working with horses, playing the piano, or playing the bagpipes. Donald has had several careers, and has at various times been a mechanic, a general contractor, Mr. Mom, a developer, and currently a consultant. He has a bachelor of science degree in business from Elmhurst College in Illinois. Don resides in Downers Grove, Illinois, with his wife, Diane, and his daughter, Kristyn. He can be contacted by e-mail at don@donaldbales.com.

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