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 Oracle Database 11g PL/SQL Programming by Michael McLaughlin. New York, 2008 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Oracle Database 11g PL/SQL Programming by Michael McLaughlin. New York, 2008 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
As business processes and problems rely more and more on reporting and data analysis from Oracle databases, there is an increasing need for personnel that have a working knowledge of the PL/SQL language. In this book, the author intends to teach those just beginning to learn PL/SQL the basic concepts through some of the more challenging capabilities of the language. McLaughlin does quite a respectable job of accomplishing this difficult task.
Throughout the book a reader is supplied with example code that works as prescribed, personal experiences illustrating code hazards and successes for various applications, figures demonstrating how code works in complex situations, appendices abundant with relevant information for easy reference and finally even a bit of humor here and there. Although the intended audience is new users, experienced PL/SQL programmers would benefit as new features in 11g are explained and clarified with code examples.
There are many ways to present methods for learning programming languages, ranging from brief explanations with code snippets to extraordinary or mind numbing details with few or no examples. In the former case many gaps exist and a reader is usually left without a clue as to how to use the language at all, let alone effectively. And in the latter case, by the time a reader finishes a paragraph she is left wondering how to use and apply the material in a realistic scenario. In this book McLaughlin balances the two extremes to provide a consistent method useful for both new and experienced programmers. Clearly and succinctly he presents a topic and then provides an easily understandable example. However, for some of the more complex concepts presented in Part III of the book the PL/SQL novice should be prepared to spend some time reading and practicing coding. There are a few cases where a concept is presented briefly in early chapters without a complete coding example and then in later chapters details are revealed in more advanced situations. In such cases a reader is expected to have the memory and insight to integrate this information to fully appreciate the code example. I spotted such a condition while reading the technique of overloading a function in Chapter 9 Packages. I was looking forward to an example but one did not exist. Later while working in Chapter 15 Java Libraries, to my surprise found that complete code example in HelloWorld2.sql for an overloaded procedure. This minor oversight would not faze an experienced programmer and hopefully should not prove too frustrating for a new user either. It could serve as a discovery or maybe was intended as a self-check on how well previous chapters were understood.
In summary, whether you are new to Oracle Corporation's PL/SQLÒ or an experienced PL/SQL programmer, this book provides valuable direction and advice for learning the language. It introduces and details new features for 11g and provides readers the opportunity to expand their repertoire of programming tools.
Great Resource for Anyone
This book is great! It's a fabulous book to use as a resource within projects. It's a tool specifically designed to teach the user the best in database management systems. Would highly recommend this book for anyone's use!
For PL/SQL users, you can't miss it
Well, I am new to PL/SQL and I read a few chapter of this book and understand it well. I'm also able to apply it.
I am Chinese from Hong Kong, China, and English is not even my first language and I am reading it just fine.
This book is not only text, but has some pictures to explain the ideals before them.
If you are a new PL/SQL programmer or want to learn some PL/SQL. This is a great book that you can trust.
This is one of the PL/SQL book that you wanted to keep, I hope it will translate to Chinese soon.
Comprehensive
You can't go wrong with this book! It is truly comprehensive. I highly recommend it.
 I returned it.
I've been using PL/SQL for a few years, but not often and not well. I wanted a book that would serve as both a reference book and as a cover-to-cover read from which I could absorb all the niceties.
This isn't that book. As a reference book, I think it's okay, but as a read it was pretty bad. The book has a lot of cut-and-pasting, with paragraphs lifted from one chapter and dropped in another (albeit relevant) chapter, or similar information repeated redundantly. For example, CHAR, NCHAR, VARCHAR2 and NVARCHAR2 are awfully similar data types, but instead of combining them into a single section and describing what they have in common and how they differed, the same long paragraph was repeated, tweaking a few words. That might be okay for a pure reference book (hence two stars rather than one), but it sure makes for a dull read, and it just makes the book heavier.
I returned the book before finishing it (and wouldn't that be cheating?), but searching the text there were some things that seemed missing. My current project will involve a SELECT-FOR-UPDATE cursor loop, and I couldn't find a description of it.
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