Product Description

Secrets of the Oracle Database is the definitive guide to undocumented and partially documented features of the Oracle database server. Covering useful but little–known features from Oracle9i Database through Oracle Database 11g, this book will improve your efficiency as an Oracle database administrator or developer. Norbert Debes shines the light of day on features that help you master more difficult administrative, tuning, and troubleshooting tasks than you ever thought possible.

Finally, in one place, you have at your fingertips knowledge that previously had to be acquired through years of experience and word of mouth through knowing the right people. What Norbert writes is accurate, well–tested, well–illustrated by clear examples, and sure to improve your ability to make an impact in your day–to–day work with Oracle.

Customer Reviews (2)

Everything you knew about, but didn't understand.
I am so surprised that a book like this has not already been written. In a nutshell, the book contains dozens of snippets of information that you mostly knew about but never had time to understand or learn properly.

As a DBA you're always on the lookout for those little snippets of info that just allow you to make it through one more project while keeping your sanity. You know those little things like the undocumented dbms_system parameter that allows you to write direct to the alert log, those sort of things. Well this book is jammed packed with a mish-mash of those little tricks you have been collecting for the last X number of years.

The book doesn't really have any solid structure and the author is pains to state that you simply dip into the book when you have time and pick up another titbit of info, which might come in useful one day.

The book is not for beginners, so if you are a casual user of Oracle don't bother, you will not not find it useful at all and will waste your money, it is aimed squarely at slightly more experienced DBA and a developer with serious interest in the internals of Oracle, may find it useful. Once again the author is clear at the start, the subjects are glanced over, the book gives you just about enough to get you started and leaves the rest to you to work out. Things like reading raw SQL trace files, one thing the masochist in me has always enjoyed! This book expects you to understand how to read a raw SQL trace to a basic standard before moving on to more advanced aspects of the interpreting them.

There is a great section on using the inbuilt Perl distro that comes with the RDBMS installation, nothing spectacular but extremely useful, saves you having to convince the SA to load this module and that to Oracle connectivity, so you will less of a pain to you Sys Admin when you need to script stuff up!

All sorts of stuff is covered, things like how to use DBMS_PIPE against RMAN to run your RMAN backups from within the DB using schedules, the author is big fan of STATSPACK, proving that it still has some very valid uses when working with performance issues. Lots and lots of stuff about undocumented parameters, lots of info on the more obscure DBMS packages and their uses. Info about the various and little used trace event 10027, 10053 and 10079. The books covers mainly 10g but there are lots of references to the changes in 11g and how things behaved in 9i, so quite broad in scope.

Very please with this book, I read it cover to cover, I simply couldn't put it down. I would stress again, this is not a tutorial book, most likely you will nothing if you have only a passing interest in Oracle or are just getting started as a DBA, the author expects you to be familiar with a lot of the concepts and ideas and very little introduction is given to each subject.

Another great quality release from Apress, I have yet to find an Oracle book from Apress that I have not thoroughly enjoyed and have not got my money's worth from!

Useful Book Even without a Lot of Real Undocumented Secrets
The "Secrets of the Oracle Database" book with the subtitle of "Advanced administration, tuning, and troubleshooting using undocumented features" follows the same pattern as most of the other Apress books, with very well researched and verified information with careful references to well regarded books and external resources.Many code samples and demonstrations are provided throughout the book in the format of: tell me about something, and then show me/prove to me that it actually works.The topics in this book reminded me a bit of the topics discussed in the book "Oracle 10g Insider Solutions," except for the fact that the "Secrets of the Oracle Database" book actually makes an effort (a very thorough effort) at indicating which features are available with each version of Oracle (through 11.1.0.7), which features require additional cost licenses (such as the use of AWR), and provides a good enough example of the features so that the feature may be utilized with an understanding of why the feature should be used.The "Secrets of the Oracle Database" book even does a thorough job indicating the permissions and/or roles needed to leverage the various features.Specific items that I found to be helpful:
* In most cases, commands are provided for Linux/Unix and the equivalents for Windows.
* Good description of SYS.AUX_STATS and the various functions to view and populate the CPU stats are described in the book.
* Very detailed description of raw 10046 trace files.
* Detailed listing of the purpose of the various database tables related to Statspack.
* Good summary of ORADEBUG functionality.
* Provides a warning not to adjust the hidden (underscore) parameters unless under the supervision of Oracle support.

With the above in mind, why not give the book a 5 out of 5 rating?
* Several Oracle features/behavior which are described as undocumented are in fact fairly well documented and/or discussed in Metalink notes, on various Oracle related blogs, and various Internet forums:Page 143 describes ALTER USER IDENTIFIED BY VALUES as being undocumented while it is documented in Metalink (279355.1 last modified 27-OCT-2008 and 1051962.101 last modified 16-OCT-2008) and on several websites.Page 136 states that the TRACE=TRUE parameter for the exp/imp and expdp/impdp utilities is undocumented while it is documented in a couple Metalink notes (271782.1 last modified 17-JAN-2005 and 286496.1 last modified 21-APR-2009) .Page 337 states that DBMS_SYSTEM is undocumented while it is documented in a couple Metalink notes (286496.1 last modified 21-APR-2009 and 103267.1last modified 20-NOV-2002 and 436036.1 last modified 09-MAR-2009 and DBMS_SUPPORT is described in 62294.1 last modified 25-OCT-2002), several books, and several websites.Pages 271 and 371 state that the 10046 trace file format is undocumented while it is documented in a couple Metalink notes (39817.1 last modified 09-DEC-2008 and 376442.1 last modified 25-JUN-2009), two books referenced by this book ("Optimizing Oracle Performance" and "Troubleshooting Oracle Performance"), and several websites.Page 299 states that "it is undocumented which parameter changes force the optimizer to consider a new plan," after showing how changing OPTIMIZER_INDEX_COST_ADJ forced a change in the execution plan - but the book never went on to suggest checking V$SES_OPTIMIZER_ENV, V$SQL. OPTIMIZER_ENV_HASH_VALUE/V$SQL. OPTIMIZER_ENV, or a 10053 trace file.

There also appear to be a couple errors, or at least exceptions to some of the broad rules discussed in the book:
* Page 29 states that "V$PARAMETER is built in such a way that it lists documented (non-hidden) parameters only," with documented parameters being those which do not begin with one or two underscore characters.This is a correct statement, until one of the hidden parameters is modified, with a command such as the following: ALTER SYSTEM SET "_OPTIMIZER_UNDO_COST_CHANGE"='10.1.0.4'; (_OPTIMIZER_UNDO_COST_CHANGE is one of those parameters which are adjusted automatically when OPTIMIZER_FEATURES_ENABLE is set to a different value). Once the _OPTIMIZER_UNDO_COST_CHANGE parameter (or likely any _ parameter) is modified, it will then be listed along with the documented parameters in V$PARAMETER (tested on Oracle 10.2.0.2 and 11.1.0.7).
* Page 45 states "Since SELECT statements don't benefit from unused indexes... it may be worthwhile to drop unused indexes."Richard Foote's blog provides evidence that those indexes which appear to be unused indexes may actually provide the cost based optimizer statistical information that it would not otherwise have.Also, not every use of an index is recorded as a use of that index.

Given the title and subtitle of the book, I expected much more insight into the internals of Oracle databases.For instance on page 277 when describing the content of a 10046 trace file, the book stated that cr is defined simply as "consistent reads", while cu is defined simply as "current blocks processed".Page 357 gives a little more detail on the cu statistic "call parameter cu (current read) corresponds to the statistic db block gets."This limited description is disappointing as a book described as providing advanced administration, tuning, and troubleshooting techniques should be able to tell much more about the cr and cu statistics.The same might also be stated about the coverage of V$SYS_TIME_MODEL, V$LOCK, V$SQL_SHARED_CURSOR and several other features discussed in the book.

Several of the chapters (5, 6, 8, 13, 14, 15, etc.) are very short, ranging from two to five pages in length.It might have been a better idea to combine several of these small chapters and/or provide more knowledge of Oracle's internal behavior in those chapters.The author seems to favor the word "contrary" as it appears many times throughout the book.The back cover of the book indicates that this book should be read after "Troubleshooting Oracle Performance" and/or "Expert Oracle Database 11g Administration".Reading either of these two books before reading the book "Secrets of the Oracle Database" might make some of the secrets disclosed in the book seem quite ordinary.

In summary, this book's contents would likely seem as "secrets" for those DBA who have worked with Oracle for only a couple years and for those DBAs whose last book read was an Oracle 8.0.5 administrator's guide.This book contains a great collection of disconnected information about Oracle (no building process from one item to the next), but it sometimes stops short of providing undocumented secrets to those DBAs who have read a couple good books recently, read a couple good blogs, and followed along on the discussions of a couple Oracle related forums.Much of the information may be obtained from other sources, but it is helpful that so much of the information is contained in a single book. ... Read more

Product Description

Real Application Clusters (RAC) and the Grid architecture are Oracle's strategy for scaling out enterprise systems to cope with bigger workloads and more users. Many books limit themselves by conceptualizing and theorizing about RAC technology, but this book is the first to portray implementing and administering an Oracle 10g RAC system in a Linux environment. This book features basic concepts underlying Linux and Oracle RAC, design strategies, hardware procurement and configuration, and many other topics.

The RAC-specific technologies described include configuration of the interconnect, OCFS, ASM, Cluster Ready Services, and Grid Control. The Oracle features RMAN and Data Guard are also discussed, along with available hardware options. The authors include practical examples and configuration information, so that upon reading this book, you'll be armed with the information you need to build an Oracle RAC database on Linux, whether it is on a single laptop or a 64-node Itanium cluster.

Customer Reviews (14)

Great Reference
Step by step guide for installing 10g RAC on Linux. Continue to use it as a reference when installing 11g RAC on Solaris 10 since the utilities are all the same.

Great Oracle/Linux FAQ
There are two approaches to learn about a new application. One is the traditional one - what a typical User Guide does - start with general overview and then methodically cover every little subject. The other way - think about a FAQ - brings you up to speed quickly by answering the most common questions, however the coverage maybe spotty.

This book is a hybrid but on a high level it's more a FAQ than a comprehensive user guide. It tells you the most common things you need to know about Linux, SAN, hardware and RAC. It requires some prior knowledge and doesn't teach you about Oracle or Unix very basics.

In general, this book would be perfect for someone who has some experience with Oracle and Unix but either lacking RAC or Linux knowledge and trying to fill in those gaps quickly. In my case it was an ideal book - I had some experience running older Oracle on Solaris and this book would let me catch up on RAC and Linux specific issues.

This book also is a nice quick reference to keep on your desk if you need to find a commonly used command or file.

The book is not a complete reference as I stated above and gives only a few most typical samples for the most typical situations. Italso shows some age and a lot of recent developments are missing (just a few examples: RHEL5, ocfs2 support on x86_64 and a lot of other things are missing) however because it is focused on the mainstream features and examples, most of the material will stay relevant for years to come.

Also, despite the lack of depth, the authors are trying to give you some rules of thumb and show you some right directions about what is good practice and what is not. A lot of guides and references provide you with endless options to choose from and leave you more confused than empowered. Here the authors are leaving the secondary details aside and try to bring to your attention what is really important and that's exactly the difference you would expect to see between a vendor technical guide and the professionals sharing their real life experience.

Overall, if you're looking for a certification prep material or planning to become a professional DBA you probably need to read more books and this one is not the best to start with. But as a quick crash course to give you some working knowledge you can get by with quickly - this book is really good.

Just the standard install
This book is good if you want to go directly through an installation using all the Oracle tools.However, it does not provide any consideration in terms of manually installing any of the components or going outside the lines.This is probably a good book for a beginner, but for seasoned installations, this book is not very helpful outside the basic Oracle GUI installation process.

Amazingly comprehensive and E2E coverage
Most of the RAC books focus only on RAC. This one covers ALL the aspects from network, server (CPU, memory, IO interface, NIC ...), storage, OS, Oracle and beyond. THE book you need for deploy Oracle and/or RAC.

The Magnum Opus on Oracle RAC
This book can easily be used as a college textbook on Oracle RAC. I am studying for the Oracle Certified Master exam and this is possibly the most high level book on Oracle I have read.

It has 3 major strengths which I found to be superior to any Oracle RAC books I have read (including the manual from Oracle).

1)Technical Depth
2)Comprehensive Overview and instructions
3)Quality of writing


1)Technical Depth
The authors write about Linux and Oracle and are high level experts in the subjects. For example, the authors have a very detailed description of how Oracle Cache Fusion handles locking across all the nodes in a RAC environment (probably the crown jewel of RAC technology). They also discuss, in detail, different types of CPU, memory, and storage and contains detailed description of each architecture. Lastly, it contains vast number of "how to" install, configure, change, analyze, backup/restore, and utilize Oracle RAC and Linux.

2)Comprehensive Coverage and Instructions
No small amount of detail has been skipped. The book contains every utility (there are many) provided by Oracle to implement RAC. It provides a good step-by-step coverage of Linux and Oracle RAC installation as well what each step is adding to the RAC environment. To top it off, it adds how to performance tune, administer, troubleshoot, backup/restore, and use Dataguard in a RAC environment. I can't think of a subject on RAC which the authors did not cover.

3)Quality of Writing
I was pleasantly surprised how well written this book is. Although far from a Pulitzer Prize material, it certainly belongs in that category amongst the Oracle books. Every praragraph has been well organized and written. The proofreader of this book deserves major praise for their work.
... Read more

Product Description

A Fully Integrated Study System for OCA Exam 1Z0-051

Prepare for the Oracle Certified Associate Oracle Database 11g: SQL Fundamentals I exam with help from this exclusive Oracle Press guide. In each chapter, you'll find challenging exercises, practice questions, a two-minute drill, and a chapter summary to highlight what you've learned. This authoritative guide will help you pass the test and serve as your essential on-the-job reference. Get complete coverage of all OCA objectives for exam 1Z0-051, including:

• SQL SELECT statements
• Restricting and sorting data
• Single-row functions
• Conversion functions and conditional expressions
• Group functions
• Displaying data from multiple tables
• Subqueries
• Set operators
• DML and DDL statements
• Schema objects

On the CD-ROM:

• One full practice exam that simulates the actual OCA exam
• Detailed answers and explanations
• Score report performance assessment tool
• Complete electronic book
• Bonus exam available free with online registration

Customer Reviews (12)

Very basic.
This book is an Introduction to SQL level book. If you know SQL a little bit, you will get very little out of this book. The chapters don't go into detail and the questions seem to be dumbed down - they don't look like realistic certification exam questions. Although it is not a certification book, if you would like to learn Oracle SQL I recommend Oracle SQL by Example (by Alice Rischert). This is one of the best book on Oracle SQL and you will learn a lot from it - not just superficial certification SQL.

Fair Study Guide for Exam, Lacking Depth
I purchased this book in preparation for the Oracle Database 11g SQL Fundamentals 1 Exam.While the breadth of the material is good as it covers every topic on the exam, the presented examples are extremely simplified and often present a concept in its most basic form.In addition, the exercise questions at the end of each chapter are much too simplified.I downloaded a practice exam from Transcender and was amazed at the difference in complexity between the questions and exams provided by the book and those from Transcender.If you are taking the exam, the questions in the book as well as the exams will not fully prepare you for the exam.I highly recommend purchasing additional practice exams from Transcender; they have the look and feel of actual Oracle exam questions.I did find the study text in this book extremely useful and would recommend it in conjunction with some other study aid.

Riddled with errors, sample questionstoo simple
This book is almost useless. Namely, it is riddled with errors, doesn't cover all the exam topics, examples are way to easy in comparison with the actual test and the 2 sample tests are easy too.
I just took the online exam and passed. However:
- most of the questions were about complex SQL statements, mostly joins and subqueries
- the online test has a serious problem: namely, the question and the proposed answers are displayed in one tab
and the table structures and tabel data are displayed in a second tab. Now the catch: the tabs can't be viewed simultaneously. This is a major problem since you have to switch back and forth between the tabs and you forget either the exhibit or the question and the given answers.

I easily scored over 95% on the practice tests (from this book and other sample tests) and barely got 75% on the real test. On a final note, I do have several years of hands-on SQL experience.

This is nice book
This is nice book . I was looking for a book that specifically contained info on SQL*Plus syntax and a bit of SQL.
The books does cover some SQL and it does cover SQL*Plus, but it never goes into any real depth on either topics. I love real world examples that I can actually refer back to and use on the job.

Excellent
This is an excellent book for passing 1Z0-051 exam. It covers all topics with good explanations and exercises to practice your understanding. It is also a good SQL reference. ... Read more

Product Description

A Fully Integrated Study System for OCA Exams 1Z0-051 and 1Z0-052, and OCP Exam 1Z0-053

Prepare for the Oracle Certified Associate Administration I and SQL Fundamentals I exams and the Oracle Certified Professional Administration II exam with help from this exclusive Oracle Press guide. In each chapter, you'll find challenging exercises, practice questions, and a two-minute drill to highlight what you've learned. This authoritative guide will help you pass the test and serve as your essential on-the-job reference. Get complete coverage of all objectives for exams 1Z0-051, 1Z0-052, and 1Z0-053, including:

• Instance management
• Networking and storage
• Security
• SQL
• Oracle Recovery Manager and Oracle Flashback
• Oracle Automatic Storage Management
• Resource manager
• Oracle Scheduler
• Automatic workload repository
• Performance tuning
• And more

On the CD-ROM:

• Three full practice exams
• Detailed answers and explanations
• Score report performance assessment tool
• Complete electronic book
• Three bonus exams available with free online registration

Customer Reviews (5)

Oracle11g OCA & OCP
It does not have enough detail to pass the OCA or OCP by itself.You will need better testing software to do that.It does make a good building block and reference to get your certifications.

Very good book
Its so didactic and very pleasant to read.

You save time reading the entire book and then doing the tests.

Great!
I am very happy. It is not another book. It's what i was looking for.

Not enough details despite large size
The book does not have enough details. It is ok if you just want to get introduced to features, otherwise I doubt if it will help people pass the exam. For most part it skims over topics without real information.

Great prep material
It's a good book for preparing for the OCP exams...It builds gradually as new material is introduced. With detailed and clearly presented material it's easy to get familiar with Oracle products and also pass the exams on which the book is based. ... Read more

Product Description

FOREWORD by Tom Kyte

Your Must-Have Guide to Everything New in Oracle Database 11g

Realize the full potential of Oracle Database 11g with help from the experts. Written by Robert G. Freeman, and with insightful commentary throughout from Arup Nanda, this Oracle Press guide offers full details on the architectural changes, database administration upgrades, availability and recovery revisions, security enhancements, and programming innovations. Every new and updated feature is covered and presented with screenshots, code samples, tables, and charts. Find out how to take full advantage of all the new and improved capabilities of Oracle Database 11g, including:

• New Oracle Automatic Storage Management features, such as Fast Disk Resync, Compatibility Attributes, Preferred Mirror Read, and Rolling Upgrade components
• Improved Automated Memory Management capabilities
• New database design features, such as virtual columns, tablespace encryption, and true table-level data compression
• New Database Advisors for data recovery and repair, partitioning, and streams performance
• New tuning features, such as Automatic SQL Tuning and SQL Performance Analyzer
• Enhancements to Oracle RMAN, including active database duplication and UNDO backup optimization
• Improved auditing and security capabilities
• Advanced BI, data warehousing, and partitioning features
• New SQL and PL/SQL enhancements

Customer Reviews (9)

Excellent book, though one error and one thing missing
I did read carefully this book three times as preparation for Oracle 11g OCP upgrade exam(from 10g).
I love the clarity, simplicity and robust examples provided by Robert Freeman.
I have rated this book with 4 stars(not 5) as I found one error and one topic that I would say is missing:

1) Error, at page 281
"Manually loaded plans are automatically fixed.Oracle will mark plans as fixed when they are evolved..."
This is not true, plans are just accepted, but not fixed when they are loaded manually.
Should be "Manually loaded plans are automatically accepted.Oracle will mark plans as accepted when they are evolved..."
Robert actually in the next section at page 282 describes correctly that evolving a plan means actually to change it from not accepted to accepted.

2) Missing, a complete description about SecureFiles new feature.
Only at page 209 Robert briefly describes SecureFiles on a half of a page.
Unfortunately the 11g upgrade OCP exam has a big chunk of the questions about SecureFiles.
Knowing or not knowing about SecureFiles can make you pass or faile the OCP exam.
I am sure when Robert Freeman wrote this book the OCP exam topics had not been probably defined.

Great book anyway, it did help me pass the OCP 11g upgrade exam.
Thank you Robert Freeman.

A must for all DBA
I have been an Oracle dba since version 5.
Every time I upgrade Oracle to a new version I read the Oracle release notes, new features and all other related books.
This time I chose this book and I must say that it is much easier and clear than other Oracle material I read before.
It is well organized, the chapters are detailed and the material is well understood.
Go get it!

Alon

A good intro to 11g, but not very detailed.
I think this book is good as an overview of Oracle Database 11g.Better than a whitepaper, but not enough to fully utilize the new features.It is a good reference when you can consult the Oracle documentation for more detail.It is not good as a new features exam guide, but isn't labeled as such, so that is OK.It still can be helpful in the process of studying though.Also, it's worth keeping on the shelf.

Excerpt
The book is fun reading.
"If you are running a physical standby database in Oracle Database 11g, Oracle physical standby databases can detect the corruption. When this error is detected, Oracle recommends switching over to the physical standby database, making it the primary database. You can then re-create the primary database.
[...]
This new feature leads to quicker identification of problems and reduced down time. When the physical standby database detects the lost write, it will generate an error in the alert log of the standby database and managed recovery will be halted." (pp. 119-120)

It is nice, isn't it? You review standby alert log, find an error, then you switch over to the standby (halted!) as Oracle recommends, making it primary, and then you re-create the primary.

Mr. Freeman! What were you thinking? :)

Approachable read, value-directed understanding
Other reviewers may have negative opinions, but I think the book is well worth the cost - especially if you bill your time. Yes, the material is covered in Oracle's New Features docs, and yes, this volume is not for either the beginner or the true expert. Remember, these books have to be written well before the new product is actually available, so there are naturally some discrepancies and small errors; these are rather benign in their impact.

However, Freeman has done a great job for those of us "in the middle" who are neither beginners or world-class experts. The explanations and "here's why you care" approach make for an approachable read and a value-directed understanding of the material. The practical tips aid understanding and will save a great deal of (billable?) time.

I would still recommend reading the Oracle documentation, and of course these new features must be tested in the crucible of real environments. But buy the book, enjoy the organized approach and the time you'll save by studying it. I recommend it to my user group and co-workers. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume will take you from novice to master, covering not only how to use SQL but also the Oracle extensions to SQL. The examples feature the sample schemas available with Oracle Database 10g, and free code will be available for download. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Buy from this vendor!!!
Thank you for such outstanding service, quality and honesty!I received the book well before the expected date, and it was in perfect condition!I would definitely buy again from this vendor!!! Well done!!!

Almost makes it
Maybe a little disorganized, but overall a pretty good reference.Lots of odd omissions though.For instance, the SUBSTR function can take negative number parameters but that is not shown.In the numeric functions, where are the GREATEST and LEAST functions? There is a list of conversion functions but no examples.If you've ever pulled your hair out over a deeply nested DECODE, you know some good examples would be nice.A few of the SQL*Plus SET commands are scattered here and there, but there is no list.
Bottom line... not bad but needs more work.

Good coverage of concepts but with no exercises for the reader to practice
Oracle Database 10g SQL - Is a good book to read or reference concepts in detail. Author has covered good amount of concepts from basics of SQL to advanced SQL queries. But we were disappointed to find that the book doesn't come with exercises at the end of each chapter to practice and play on the concepts understood.

Good book from scratch to practice
It is a very good book for both who are beginning to learn SQL from scratch or those who are not too familiar with Oracle SQL databases. It introduces a lot of new 10g functionalities. Examples are given in almost most functions for easy understanding of practical usage. However, the book does not explain enough about the concept of storage about the Oracle 10g.

It is a good book for beginners
The book is good for beginners, especially who do not know SQL. The book talked about basic SQL syntax, and SQL Plus at the beginning. It also covers advanced SQL at the second part which I just ignored. ... Read more

Product Description
The only study guide in the market for those taking the Oracle Database 10g: New Features for Administrators exam! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Better Than Nothing...
I had already begun using Oracle 10g, but had not used many of the new features before buying this book.I found this book useful in learning some of these new features, but frequently found myself flipping back and forth when contradictions appeared.Most often, there were contradictions and inaccuracies right next to each other on the same page.Even the Self-Tests had questions written wrong with respect to answers.

I found that I had to consult the Oracle documentation over and over again to figure out what was correct, and occasionally never found the right answer anyway.I almost ran out of ink correcting the mistakes in the book in the margins (Which should be made larger in future editions.)

I have bought several other better-written exam guides in the past - the Osborne 9i New features exam guide, and Sybex 8i full certification set.This 10g guide seems incredibly sloppy compared to my past experience.I am currently looking for an 11g Exam guide, and See that Sam Alapati has written that one for Osborne again.I will try to find something else if possible because I don't trust the Author or Editors of this book.

The only reason I give this book 2 stars and not 1 is that I did pass the exam.I did not feel like this book prepared me as well as it should though.

I failed the exam by reading this book
Not to blame the book as the reason I failed, I realized when I went to the testing room, there are alot of items that this book doesn't cover. I recommend you read some other books for your upgrade exam.

Good book
This is the only guide you need to pass the exam. It may not have the depth, but it covered the objectives well.

Then again, what kind of depth does one require for ASM? I've not seen it in use yet here.

10g Certification
If you are planning on taking the Oracle 10g upgrade exam this is the book I used to take the test, and I passed.A few questions on the test on nowhere to be found in the book and that could be because they are new questions or something along those lines.The practice exams are ok and may be a bit easier than the questions on the exam.I looked at some other publishers for Oracle exams and I say Sybex are the ones I am most comfortable with.I purchased this book and scheduled the exam for 6 weeks out.If I would have failed I would have blamed the book :)

As a reference book you will need additional sources as this book focuses on the Oracle exam.Good luck with the exam.

Typos, contradictions and poorly worded questions.
I just finished passing the test. I admit this guide helped me study for the test. The guide was well organized and covered the topics in enough depth. The writing was good. However, the typos, mispellings, contradictions, poorly worded questions and just plain bad sample questions and examples were annoying. The sample tests provided by the book were okay, but had typos and problems too. The end of chapter tests had several problems: some questions were poorly phrased or the answers contradicted the main text of the book.

I marginally recommend the guide, but you need another reference. I used the Oracle online documentation constantly to double-check the facts. My advice is buy the guide because it is well organized, but you need to be careful and double-check syntax and the facts.

... Read more

Product Description
Oracle 10G Programming is a concise,streamlined guide to Oracle programming. It is ideal for studentsstudying databases, and introduces the Oracle technology students needto know for a first database course.

TheRelational Data Model, Oracle SQL, PL/SQL, Web Programming with PL/SQL,Oracle JDBC, SQLJ: Embedded SQL in Java, Oracle Web Programming withJava Servlets, Oracle XML, Projects.

MESSAGE: For all readers interested in Oracle 10G.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Think twice...
Bought both 10g & 9i, content are the same page by page... except for the cover.

A great introduction to both SQL and Oracle
This book is an excellent way to introduce readers that are new to SQL to both SQL and its implementation in Oracle.If you've never had a course in relational databases or its been a long time since you worked with SQL it will get you up to speed quickly and with a minimum of fuss.

It Sucks ! Don't waste your money
Thanks professor for wasteing my money on this "thing!"
Oh my god! the author needs to improve his English...
Nothing in this book.. "quick reference"? I would rather look up from internet. Even it's 1 dollars I still don't want to waste my shipping fee for over 3 dollars value.
... Read more

Product Description
SQL for Query Writers assumes that you have no previous experience with SQL. This book is intended for the business analyst, report developer, business intelligence user and those new to SQL. It introduces basic relational database concepts and includes many diagrams to help with data set visualization.This book is packed full of examples to help you write SQL queries. Learn best practices, SQL functions, formatting query results, analytical functions, converting query results into XML, basic performance tuning, object types, report applications and more. Level: Rookie to SuperstarA SQL tutorial and reference that covers Oracle Database 11g ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pure SQL Queries
I am the author of this book. I thought that I would take a moment to share a little about this book with you. SQL queries are what you develop or write when you are writing reports, customizing BI dashboards and developing software against a database. I've been helping new report developers and programmers write SQL, tune SQL and refactor SQL over the last 10 years. When I recommend a good SQL book or reference the online Oracle documentation I have found that it can be overwhelming for those new to SQL. This was my motivation in writing "SQL for Query Writers". "SQL for Query Writers" is a pure SQL book that leaves out all of the DBA-related SQL commands (as report writers are not typically managing databases). I also include many of the SQL optimizations that I have used over the years to achieve performance expectations (another hard thing to learn). So I invite you to take a look at my book with Amazon's Look Inside feature. The source code for creating the examples in this book is available online as a free download. ... Read more

Product Description
Provides beginning DBAs and developers with a solid foundation in the database administration and programming basics needed to embark on an Oracle career. The focus is on Oracle Database 10g, but you'll get the fundamentals applicable to all Oracle database releases. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Well done!!!!
This vendor shipped the book well in advance of the expected, the book quality was excellent, and the vendor deserves more business!!Thank you for your prompt, high-quality service!

Useless and confusing
This book tells a lot of notions about oracle db, and this can be at first interesting for beginners, but without a logical order: there is no structure, there is no logical consequence in what is written, sometimes even in the same page

This aspect is particular evident in the bakup and recovery section: the authors have written a blob of informations totally unrelated with each other

The choice of the topics is very strange too: there is nothing about fundamental topics, like oracle installation (not even for windows) but there is place for very advanced topics, not so useful for beginners, like xml in oracle db and data partitioning.

The result: this book can be attractive for the large numbers of topics discussed, but it can be very, very confusing

Not a good book. Not a solution for any problem
I know beginners need a book wich talks about only a few topics, the most important. And it must be clear and not too deep way. But it doesn't mean you can take a time with each topic. This book passes over every chapter at the speed of light, leaving many issues unexplained.
To all of this, it must be added the fact that the book costs as much as other really wonderfull and longer books.
It's been frustrating that feeling I had while reading, as I have wasted my money and I'll have to buy another. Any search in google for oracle tutorials gives more information than that book.

Fails at its mission
The problem with this book is stated on page 4 " In order to work.... you will need to have the Oracle Database 10g software installed and the first database successfully created".Therein lies the problem.If you have the software installed and a database started you are way passed the beginning.

This is an intermediate and overview book of Oracle, it is not a beginner's book.When you install the software you will have at least 19 .exe files that will start certain portions of Oracle.Which one do you start with??This book will not tell you.There are default passwords you need to know to get started with Oracle. This book will not tell you.There are certain set ups you need to do with the DBA program to start using Oracle.This book will not tell what you need to do.

There are chapters on SQL, Database Administrator, Networking, Backup, PL/SQL, Java, XML and Large Database Features.There is not a single chapter on how to begin and set up Oracle.

This book was written by three authors and five associate authors that are all highly qualified at Oracle.Their knowledge is so far above the beginner, they have no idea or concept of what the beginner needs to know.Nowhere is there a step by step, mouse click by mouse click, command by command on how to start Oracle.As stated before there are at least 19 .exe files installed when you install Oracle.There is no chapter that tells you what these 19 plus programs do and which one to start with or how to set up Oracle.

The book does give some code snippets to use once Oracle is up and running, but they are completely useless if you cannot get Oracle up and running.Instead of having chapters on Networking, Java, XML and Large Databases, there should be chapters on Beginning,Install, Setup, Logging on, and First Database Definition.

At its stated mission or title, this book is a complete, absolute and total failure.If you want a beginning book, pass on this one.

Really poor...
Just like other reviewers have written, it is really a poor guide... from the fisrt pages you know that the book is missing it's target... ... Read more

Product Description
Learn how to use the PL/SQL programming language effectively, using one of the most popular and widely-used software programs in large companies today. Oracle 10g Developer: PL/SQL Programming uses Oracle 10g to provide an overview of the PL/SQL programming language, beginning with fundamental PL/SQL concepts and progressing to the writing and testing of PL/SQL code. The book then progresses to more advanced topics, such as Dynamic SQL and code tuning. Updated to the latest release, Oracle 10g, it uses the developer's perspective to focus on the PL/SQL component of the software. With real-world examples and a straightforward writing style, this is a valuable resource for anyone preparing for the new Oracle Certification exam, or simply looking to master the PL/SQL programming language with Oracle. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent Resource for beginners to learn Oracle PL/SQL
The author progresses through complicated material in a very precise, methodical way.The hands-on exercises provide real-world examples to reinforce understanding of key concepts. ... Read more

Product Description

The fastest way to get up and running on Oracle Database XE

Take full advantage of all the powerful features available in Oracle Database 10g Express Edition with help from this easy-to-follow Oracle Press guide. Hands-On Oracle Database 10g Express Edition for Windows shows you, step by step, how to set up, administer, tune, troubleshoot, and secure a robust database system. You will also learn to use PL/SQL and Oracle Application Express to build custom database applications. Get started today with the Oracle database that's free to develop, deploy, and distribute.

Customer Reviews (4)

a good well written book to understand Oracle 10g
After I took a quick glance of my copy, however, it is not a book Oracle DBA can be sufficient. The scripts are primitive for illustration purpose. Not much DBA scripts are discussed. Well devoted effort to write this book, well written. Just for different target audience.

Oracle DB 10g
I started with the book and the CD due to the thought of getting a ground rules idea of what Oracle is about. I did notice several areas where SQL code was used but other than that it is a powerful tool. The "Express" edition really gives you an idea of how powerful this database is. Once you complete the Express edition, go to Oracles website and download the Personal Edition for free and get the whole kit and kaboodle!

Good book
The book was well written and very methodically built the topic.I would have liked to have an introductory overview section/chapter that illustrated how the topics come together, and an example of an end result.

Hands-On Oracle Database 10g Express Edition for Windows (Osborne Oracle Press)
This book is very good! ... Read more

Product Description
Oracle's Mr. Linux details everything from installing the OS (Red Hat and United Linux) to installing the database to debugging and troubleshooting to performance, availability, and scalability. Wim is the Director of Linux Engineering at Oracle. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

no useful information
Before I bought this book I read its table of contents and I found it wery interesting for me. But when I started reading it I found very few concreate informations in this book. A lot of repeated sentences, a lot of general informations. If you would like to learn something useful about Oracle implementation in Linux try another book.

Useful info and perspective of running Oracle's database on Linux
This is a well written book for anyone who wants to learn lots of useful Linux specific details and perspective about set up, administration, monitoring, and tuning Oracle 10g on Linux.

Granted, there's lots of free documentation on Oracle's web site.But, instead of just being dry documentation that's not a lot of fun to read, this book gives conciseness, and prose that communicates the authors actual real-world experience of working with this stuff.

If you're administering Oracles 10g on Linux, this is a great book to read.

Very satisfied with the contents
If you read the editorial review: It is stated that the book is about installing and configuring Oracle Database 10g on Linux. Yes, the author did explain clearly the process of installing and configuring the Oracle 10g on Linux. He also covered a few more topics such as HA (High Availability), Tuning SQL, RAC, Replication, Index and Partitioning ... but not in depth. But the coverage is acceptable and useful. Do buy this book and you will find it useful if you love Oracle DBMS running on LINUX platform.

Good intro to Oracle 10g for Linux
As an experienced Oracle DBA, I wanted a nice text that covers Linux specifics to Oracle 10g. This book is okay not perfect but the only real Oracle 10g for Linux book on the market.

Good
1. RAC coverage is decent
2. Linux tuning for Oracle is nice

Bad
1. Data Guard coverage is very weak
2. No workarounds for installation issues with Linux and Oracle

So I give it 3 stars because its not bad but not great. I hope that the other Linux for Oracle RAC book that comes out next year is better.

lots of buzzwords but no useful info
I was very anxious for this book to come out since it had a very lucrative table of contents with all the "right" stuff in it.
Unfortunately I found the book to have a lot of unneeded info such as history of Oracle, history of Linux, Unix, overview of Oracle products,etc junk. If you an Oracle professional, you probably knowall of this anyways. I was hoping to find "trade secrets" and "best pratices of ORacle on Linux" that will help me , but instead found very basic descriptive information, nothing detailed in particular.
There is nothing "special" about Oracle architecture, backup and recovery in this book that refers to Linux that you can't find in any other oracle 10g book. The only useful detail that I found is remapping of kernel base when using Large memory for SGA, but that also can be dug out of OTN. Also you will find a much better overview of Linux from any "Linux Administration" book.

Overall this book may be ok for a newbie as introduction, but if you are past that stage, I would say pass on this one. ... Read more

Product Description
Everything a DBA needs to know in one volume--this is the must-have reference for anyone working with the Oracle database, and it's been fully revised and updated for Oracle Database 10g. Co-author Kevin Loney is the all-time, best-selling Oracle Press author. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

DBA Handbook
Great purchase experience and a great book for any dba making a transition from 'i' to 'g'

Fantastic Quality!!!
The provider of this book was honest, fast in shipment, and the book was in outstanding condition!Please purchase from this vendor!!!I would definitely buy again from the vendor!!Great Job!

Never mind!
If you're not familiar with Oracle this book won't help you one bit.
If you are, it's useless because you won't find anything on the topic you're looking for.

Excellent Reference
This book thoroughly describes storage structures, day-to-day tips for installing, maintaining, and upgrading 10g databases.I refer to it often when performing DBA functions.It can also be read as a primer from cover-to-cover to get an excellent understanding of 10g.

Great book!
This book can't be out of your office! It's an excelent, faster, complete reference that helps you in your every-day Oracle DBA work, It cover from the basic topics to RAC and high-availability configuration in only 708 pages. Obvious, It's a handbook reference and doesn't give you the complete solution for one problem, but if You had been working for 2 or 3 years as DBA, or if You are and OCA or OCP DBA, the book is a great reference for you. ... Read more

Product Description

The Most Complete Guide to Maximizing Oracle Recovery Manager

Deploy a rock-solid data backup and disaster recovery strategy with the in-depth guidance of this authoritative volume. From the exclusive publishers of Oracle Press books, Oracle Database 10g RMAN Backup & Recovery shows you, step by step, how to set up RMAN-ready databases, create reliable backup tapes and discs, and perform accurate Oracle system restores. Find out how to use RMAN from the command line and from Enterprise Manager, generate meaningful lists and reports, and automate administrative tasks using third-party media management tools. Plus, you'll learn to perform incremental backups, Flashback recoveries, and database cloning.

• Set up, configure, and maintain Oracle Database 10g RMAN
• Use RMAN recovery catalogs, target database packages, and control files
• Centralize backup tape management using Oracle Secure Backup
• Perform online, offline, and incremental system backups
• Monitor and tune performance with Enterprise Manager Grid Control and Database Control
• Accomplish complete and partial RMAN database restores
• Improve functionality using VERITAS NetBackup, EMC NetWorker Module, and Tivoli Storage Manager
• Overcome human errors using Flashback Versions Query and Transaction Query
• Create clone and standby databases from tape and disc backups
• Work with Real Application Cluster (RAC) databases and sync-and-split hardware technologies

Customer Reviews (9)

RMAN Backup and Recovery
This purchase has become a great companion in my work place. The buying experience was great. Amazon is truly reliable.

A Comprehensive RMAN Book which will Remain on the Shelf in an Emergency
I finished reading this book about six months ago and delayed writing a review of the book until I had a chance to contrast the contents of the book with the Oracle 10g R2 RMAN documentation and other books on the same subject.I bought the book after reading recommendations by several individuals, and thought that this book was the perfect opportunity to refresh by memory of the Oracle 8i documentation of RMAN and bring me up to speed with the command line interface of RMAN in Oracle 10g R2.The Enterprise Manager Database Control in Oracle 10g R2 almost over simplifies the process of setting up backups, but there is always that nagging question... what if the GUI interface is down, underscoring why it is important to be familiar and comfortable with the command line interface when restore and recovery are needed.I was also preparing to give a presentation related to Oracle administration and performance tuning.This book did not meet the criteria for inclusion in the recommended resources for the presentation, and for that matter neither did any other RMAN book, with the possible exception of the Oracle documentation.

While the book excels at explaining what makes RMAN tick, I personally found that the book is actually a bit difficult to use when trying to implement a change to the Oracle configuration.The section on database cloning, for instance, is more difficult to follow than Oracle's own "Backup and Recovery Advanced User's Guide" documentation on the same topic.Maybe it is just me (and one or two other people).Flipping between several pages (seemed like a hundred or more) is not confidence inspiring had this been a real emergency.

I then decided to try a couple recovery scenarios.I set up an Oracle 10.2.0.4 database instance on a new box, used impdp to load a copy of the data from a production database, enabled archived redo log mode, and then scheduled a backup using the Enterprise Manager Database Control.The first test involved shutting down the Oracle instance, and renaming both copies of the control files.The first attempt in following the "Oracle Database 10g RMAN Backup & Recovery" book to recover from this problem resulted in "ORA-07445: exception encountered: core dump [ACCESS_VIOLATION] [unable_to_trans_pc] [PC:0x7c910CB0] [ADDR:0x4] [UNABLE_TO_READ] []".The book did not cover how to recover from the ORA-07445, which essentially means that Oracle Metalink support must be contacted - the database is down.Not too reassuring.The second attempt (after recreating the instance and database) of following the book to perform this procedure, after realizing that I should have specified RESETLOGS (if I recall correctly, it seems that information was located somewhere else in the book) resulted in "ORA-19698: ...\redo01.log is from different datadase: id=0, db_name=" following the execution of ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS.Once again, scanning through this book I did not find the solution to this particular problem.Had this been a real emergency, this book would not have been the only object to hit the recycle bin.

Other miscellaneous notes about the book, in no particular order:
* 100+ pages of the book are devoted to setting up RMAN to work with various storage/media managers.
* RMAN workshops list steps to accomplish various tasks, often spread over 5+ pages in the book.Not all required information is located in close proximity to the RMAN workshops.
* Covers command line and Enterprise Manager GUI commands for RMAN.
* Demonstrates flashback versions queries, flashback table, flashback drop, flashback database
* Many screen shots, diagrams, RMAN Workshop break outs, large font - space filling section headings, seemingly wide margins.
* Some steps which should be straight forward, such as duplicating a database using RMAN, appear to be very simple when reading the book, yet when attempting to put those simple procedures into practice using the book as a guide, are in fact quite difficult due to all of the alternate syntax which is introduced to cover many different set ups.It might be necessary to flip between 50 different pages to successfully duplicate a database on the same server using this book as a guide.
* The book does not indicate what features described in the book require an Enterprise Edition license, nor what features require additional licenses beyond an Enterprise Edition license (this seems to happen in several books by different authors).
* In a crisis, the Recovery Case Studies in chapter 21, which could prove to be the most helpful section of the book, but that section only covers 13 scenarios, all with generally a long description to describe the recovery case study problem.

This book is spared a three star recommendation only by the fact that I enjoyed reading the book cover to cover.

Recently, I have been reading "RMAN Recipes for Oracle Database 11g: A Problem-
Solution Approach" and have found that the book is better organized, locating the necessary information in the right places for accomplishing a task, although there is a bit of over repeating in the book (the same sentence appears in two adjacent paragraphs, for example).While the RMAN Recipes book states that it is designed for Oracle 11g, there are output captures which show that some of the sections of the book were written using Oracle 10.2.0.x.If you are considering the purchase of "Oracle Database 10g RMAN Backup & Recovery", you might first want to examine "RMAN Recipes for Oracle Database 11g: A Problem-Solution Approach" through the Google books search to determine if it is a better fit for your anticipated backup and recovery scenarios.

A good option to buy
RMAN is the present and the future of Oracle solution for backup.
It has a simple concept, but a great variety of commands, by this way, as a solution for all the complexity inside the RMAN solution, Oracle Database 10g RMAN Backup & Recovery come as a special "friend" to help us discovering all posibilities inside Oracle RMAN software.

Makes backup & recoveryezeee
I had no idea about backup and recovery but after reading this book and trying out the examples, I can say with confidence I can recover a RMAN backed database. Written extremly well!!! One of the good technical boooks I have read....

Worth it's weight in Gold!
Backup and Recovery is one of the most critical tasks that a DBA has to perform. Sadly, it is also one of the most misunderstood. RMAN should be the tool of choice for backup and recovery for Oracle databases. There is so much that can be done with RMAN.

What Robert and Matthew do is break it down piece by piece. There is a great intro and they build on that in subsequent chapters. If you want to link RMAN directly with your backup software (i.e. Veritas, EMC, Legato, etc..) then the authors show you how. I used the Veritas piece to link RMAN in and it worked flawlessly. They go over the latest features including block changing files (for faster incremental backups), merging level 1 and level 0 backups (for faster recoveries without the overhead of backing up the whole database), and even cover what the flash recovery area is and how to use it. There is so much great material packed in this book. Yeah, you can try and read Oracle's docs, but rather than just show you how to do it, the authors also teach you why to do it.

You can read this book chronologically or use it as a reference. The authors writing style make this book a great joy to read. They also include a lot of great examples in case you like to learn by seeing.

I would highly recommend this book if you are an Oracle DBA, whether you use RMAN or not. Afterall, RMAN is what you should be using :). ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (3)

Great jump start.
Hi, this book's title is definitely not a misnomer.I bought it because I was more or less thrust into a position where I had to learn Oracle - quickly.Time and time again as I searched the internet for this and that I came across tips and excerpts from the author.He's always been pretty good about being short and sweet teaching me what I need to know the first go around.So, (although I didn't realize that there were a series of books) I sprang for this book which was on sale at the time.It is informative - but a jumpstart in every sense of the word.If you have a friend or coworker that owns a copy, borrow it -- I'm not sure I'd tell anyone to invest a few dollars for their own copy.Great crash course though. Thanks!

Easy Read - Good content
This book was easy to read and provided me with the skills and information I needed to get started with Oracle.It does a great job of explaining the basics of starting and managing an Oracle database.

Is there anything good to say about this work?
The author describes this book as his first and it clearly shows throughout.Everyone has to start somewhere, so I can cut some slack for the lack of polish in the work.But not for the identified team of 'experts' who assisted him and who should hide their heads in shame as having let him down so badly.A book on any technical subject with as much breadth and depth as Oracle clearly needs to be well thought out and planned.There is precious little evidence of either in this work.But on top of that - it is just plain painful to read.

This is not an exaggeration - almost any page has something wrong with it - either grammatically, technically, graphically or any other way you care to look.It is downright torture to read this book.

Worst of all - it is shameless in hyping the company the author works for and their other so-called consultant experts.Most chapters actually refer you to Google to find something written (usually very poorly) by someone connected to the book, the publisher, or the consultant house.

I cannot over-emphasize that this book should be avoided.The only reason I have it is because (disappointingly to me) the community college where I am learning Oracle uses it.In my opinion the faculty needs to re-examine (better yet, try to learn from) this work for its value.It leaves this reader gagging; but then, let me tell you how I truly feel ...
... Read more

Product Description
PL/SQL, Oracle's programming language for stored procedures, delivers a world of possibilities for your database programs. PL/SQL supplements the standard relational database language, SQL, with a wide range of procedural features, including loops, IF-THEN statements, advanced data structures, and rich transactional control--all closely integrated with the Oracle database server.Learning Oracle PL/SQL offers the guidance you need to come up to speed on PL/SQL, whether you're a beginner or already experienced with another programming language.Topics include:

PL/SQL - what is it, and why use it?Syntax and examples of all core language constructsCreating and reusing stored procedures, functions, and packagesBuilding web-based applicationsSecuring PL/SQL programs Benefits of third-party developer toolsConnecting PL/SQL to email, Java, and the Internet

Customer Reviews (13)

Maybe use as reference with another book...
I bought this book, used, a couple of weeks ago since I needed a resource to learn Oracle... I wish the book would have started with Oracle commands instead of the PL/SQL aspect but I was not totally bothered with this...

If this is the same version, that I have, there are numerous errors (or I believe them to be). For example, on page 160, there is an example of PL/SQL code using a cursor. I understand what they are trying to do but... The second line declares the variable favorite_play_title VARCHAR2(??); - is this legal? I thought VARCHAR2 needs a finite number. On the third line after the BEGIN statement, the statement FETCH bkcur INTO favorite_play_title, publication_date; is fine except he never defines bkcurs in the code (but looking a few pages back he has a script which it is defined - page 152)... It is not stated that the variable bkcur is automatically defined and initialized by the FETCH command (I found this out in another Oracle PL/SQL book that I own) which really confused me.

There are numerous examples like this that make the book hard to follow... There is not much description on the code that they wrote and it one types it in manually, they will be sure to run into the problems... And if you, download the samples online, good luck since they are bits and pieces of code some of which is missing the data so you really will struggle following the book...

I am not against the authors... When you are learning a programming language, software tools, and ... you will need to have the ability to put your resource into practice. If a book is not written, organized well or has examples that do not help the user to understand, missing data and/or have errors, it makes it harder for the user to pick up concepts however simple or complex they may be... If a person is going to spend good money, they deserve a good book...

The Oracle press series is a much better resource for learning Oracle. I have 2 of the books on order...

Not learning anything
This book is erroneously named. There's barely anything about PL/SQL. It's just a hodge-podge on oracle database server and oracle application server with minimum coverage on both.

PL/SQL is an Oracle proprietary language that is available in a variety of Oracle products, and is somewhat different and differently used in each Oracle product. If you want to learn Oracle database server PL/SQL get books by Alice Rischert or Scott Urman because their coverage of PL/SQL is well explained and in depth.

Learning Oracle Maybe, But Not PL/SQL
I've been developing with Sybase and SQL Server for about 5 years with very limited experience with Oracle in that time. I purchased this book hoping to get up to speed on the differences between Oracle's PL/SQL and the Sybase/Microsoft T-SQL syntax. From the title this book seemed appropriate for the job. In short, while the book might be an adequate, albeit SLOW, introduction to Oracle, it covers very little actual PL/SQL.

If you are a programer/engineer/dba looking to "learn Oracle PL/SQL", interested in practical applications of such fundamental topics as constraints, foreign keys, indexes, joins, cursors, views, triggers, corelated subqueries and the like, look elsewhere. Don't take my word for it--take a peek at the index or table of contents and you'll see that the focus of this book has very little to do with PL/SQL.

Overall very good
I've only read three chapters so far.It's been very good actually - I knew some SQL beforehand, although nothing very complicated, and it has been pretty easy for me to understand as well as very helpful for me in learning how to use PL/SQL.It has genuinely useful examples, and also provides tips as to how to perform unit testing on stored procedures and functions.

Another very useful thing the author does is list common and not-as-common mistakes that a programmer may make (which may not always result in errors or exceptions), hence possibly saving you the trouble of hours of debugging.

The only problem I've had with it is that he doesn't treat foreign keys as constraints.One of his sample column declarations is:"isbn VARCHAR2(100) FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES books (isbn)", but I kept getting an error until I changed it to:"isbn VARCHAR2(100), FOREIGN KEY (isbn) REFERENCES books (isbn)".I am not sure if this is a peculiarity of my installation (running Oracle 9i), but a check online reveals that many people also consider foreign keys a constraint.

Except for that problem, I would have given this book 5 stars.

Fair Guide for Learning PL/SQL
I use a self-taught approach to learn new things like most people. And, like most people, I get frustrated with the lengthy superfluous nature of how-to books which throw everything in, including the kitchen sink. This book starts off well, and you can learn from it at a comfortably progressive pace, but it could use a larger scope.The author leaves a lot of code out of the book, though he does explain parts of it.In the end, the project he uses to illustrate PL/SQL becomes more complicated than it needs to be for a tutorial exercise.Still, I haven't seen anything better. ... Read more

Product Description

JDBC is the most commonly used API in Java to access and manipulate data in a database. Oracle is one of the most popular and scalable databases in the world. This book is a must-have for any developer building an application that employs JDBC on Oracle database. Unlike other JDBC books, this book has been written to complement not rehash the contents of Oracle JDBC documentation and the JDBC specification.

The book teaches you not just how to write JDBC code, but how to write effective JDBC code in a step-by-step fashion. This book does not assume any prior knowledge of JDBC though it does assume basic knowledge of SQL and PL/SQL. It covers JDBC with a focus on writing high-performing, scalable and secure applications for Oracle 10g and 9i. Using this book you will learn, among other things:

• How to efficiently query, insert, update and delete data using JDBC
• How to exploit knowledge of Oracle fundamentals in building applications
• What transaction isolation levels are, which ones Oracle supports and how to write your transactions effectively on Oracle
• How to use proxy authentication to make your programs more secure
• How to use Oracle objects and collections effectively in your applications
• How to deal with the phenomenon of "lost updates" using variants of optimistic and pessimistic locking strageties
• How to exploit statement caching and connection pooling to increase performance and scalability of your application

Customer Reviews (5)

Great book for novice to advanced users

Good Things:
Lots of excellent real life code examples
Good reading for beginners to advanced users; helpful for advanced concepts but also built up to them by explaining the basics ones.
Great code optimization recommendations.
Well written, easy to understand.

Bad Things:
No CD that comes with book containing code examples.I also did not find a website with the code examples.

Great book for combination of JDBC and Oracle
The previous reviewers are absolutely right about this book. This book is definitely the best book if you are looking to exploit JDBC in combination with Oracle. Note that it covers JDBC on its own right but then suppliments it with info on Oracle. It is way better than any other JDBC book in the market (I have read through most others.) What I liked about this book is:
1. The author gives complete examples for you to work with. He also explains these examples step by step.
2. The author always provides proof for any statement of performance claims he makes in terms of code that anyone can run. This is a refreshingly different approach than some authors who simply state the claims (that are more often than not incorrect)
3. Author's approach is practical and can be used in real life projects.
4. The author goes in-depth into all topics he covers and is not afraid to delve into the details of Oracle architecture when required.
5. There is no "fluff" or "padding". There are no reams of pages just giving API information that is readily available on the web. Instead the author suppliments the JDBC API info and the Oracle documentation on JDBC freely available on the web.

In short, this book bridges the gap between J2EE developers and database developers (focusing on Oracle, of course.)

The only thing to note is that as a reader, you could get bogged down by the first two chapters since they give overview of Oracle architecture and performance tools the author uses. But as you would read the remaining chapters, you would appreciate the contents of these first two chapters.

If you are using JDBC on Oracle, then buy this book! You won't regret it!

how to use oracle & java effectively and fast!
"Expert Oracle JDBC Programming" is part of a new series called OakTable Press.This series is written by Oracle experts, making the quality very high.In fact, one of the technical reviewers of this book is "Ask Tom."

This strong relationship with Oracle results in trying to convince the reader to use stored procs/Oracle specific code.This isn't a good or a bad thing - just something to know up front.The author clearly shows what is Oracle specific and describes the tradeoffs.

The book has three sections, starting with an introduction to JDBC.While JDBC knowledge is not required, it is helpful to get full benefit from the book as advanced concepts are introduced very quickly.The book relies heavily on code with all examplesclearly explained.The second section goes into Oracle specific concepts.The last section explains best practices, issues and specific performance related concepts.

This book is distinguished from others by the emphasis on good quality, high performing code.Benchmarks are provided from the beginning.Chapter 1 even covers how to time your code.

As you can tell from the title, the book is Oracle specific.So you can copy/paste the code and run it on Oracle.All code examples specifically state whether they work on 9i, 10g or both.The focus of Oracle also allows the author to demonstrate exactly what needs to be done to run/test the examples on Oracle.I recommend this book for Java developers on Oracle.

For Oracle specific high performance JDBC this is THE book
This book is about Oracle JDBC programming, not generic database neutral JDBC programming but Oracle specific. There are many JDBC books available and many Oracle and Oracle programming books but thisconcentrates narrowly on JDBC for Oracle, and how to get the best performance out of that combination. It is aimed at an audience that already knows Java and probably already knows a little JDBC. It is written in a dry but very readable style and plenty of code examples. At just over 700 pages it is a fairly fat book, but I felt everything was justified and there was nothing that felt like "padding". The code examples are fairly short and tend to be complete programs with a main method rather than snippets that need to be incorporated into a runnable program. Each code example includes a comment about which version of Oracle it will run with, and mostly this covers at least 10.1 and 9.2.

The main emphasis is on compatibility with Oracle 10.g. There is an emphasis on performance which is clear from the title of Chapter 1 "Performance Toolkit" and graphs are used to illustratethe influence of various parameters on performance. The book makes use ofUML style class charts, tables and plenty of performance/time line graphs. I particularly liked the use ofa flow chart to illustrate the statement processing algorithm. Flow charts seem to be old fashioned, but they are almost perfect for illustrating this type of information. If you were being overly critical of the diagrams, you might describe them as unsophisticated. Thus in Chapter 15the "Our example application"illustration looks like it was taken from the clip art of a DOS program from around 1987. But if you want pretty pictures you can buy any glossy "Illustrated Walking and Chewing Gum" book that takes your fancy. This book by contrast, concentrates on explaining essential technical and performance information, in the simplest clearest way possible, and they achieve it.

The coverage tends to keep to how Oracle is used in most common "real world" situations, thus the index does not even contain a reference to Grid computing and there is no coverage of distributed transactions, which are described in the introduction as a "less commonly used JDBC feature".

Although chapter 3 is entitled "Introduction to JDBC" it is a lightening tour with code examples that assume they are accessing an Oracle database. There is an emphasis on performance with chapters on statement caching and connection pooling.It not only covers the Oracle specific classes, but also covers where they do not work exactly as per the specification.For example
in chapter 4 "Transactions" there is a note

"In 10g Release 1 and 9i Release 2, the method setReadOnly() of the Connection interface internally does a set transaction read only.This is a bug, as it isn't the intended behavior of the method setReadOnly().."

There are many examples of notes such as this which could be vital when you are struggling with some unexpected quirk of behavior.

With this book you are not getting a re-writing of the documentation, but a description from someone who has actually used the classes. Although the heart of the book is JDBC it does have some excellent coverage of general Java/Oracle programming and configuration issues.

I was particularly interested in thesections onConnection Pooling/Caching and security related issues. These chapters would be of value for anyone writing JDBC for any target database, as it explains some of the implication of connection pooling in terms of authentication. Chapter 15, "Security-related issues" covers the issue of Mapping an end user to a database user.This covers the performance issues of a one to one mapping and the benefit of proxy authentication to get around this.

Performance Performance

Chapter 2 is called "Oracle Fundamentals", thought it might have been called"Oracle performance fundamentals". It covers issues such as the impact of Oracle record locking and the value of using bind variables for inserting records. This includes a performance graph typical of the book. Without bind variables, the graph curve is like an ascent of Mount Everest. By contrast where bind variables are used the increase in time taken represents a very gentle slope. This is the type of advice that could make the difference between your code being optimal or being unusable. In chapter 2 the author gives his mantra for the book as

"we should not just produce code that works; we should produce code that works well".
I interpret that ascode that "runsfast" and code you can prove runs fast.

One of the few parts of the book that is probably not essential is chapter 8 which covers Oracle Objects. This canbe summed up unfairly as "Oracle supports objects but you probably don't want to use them". However as most Java programmers tend to have an interest in Object Oriented concepts they will probably get some value out of it, even if they decide not to use JDBCto access Oracle Objects.

What about PL/SQL?

The author is not a Java Zelot and puts convincing arguments for when PL/SQL may be a better choice than Java/JDBC. He makes the expected performance argument, but more interesting is the argument that sometimes using PL/SQL may be more portable, in that you should use the procedural language of your target database, e.g. TSQL in SQL server, PLSQL etc. I think this is stretching the argument, and database portability can be more important for some categories of application.

Summary

This is not a book for students who want to learn JDBC from scratch. It is for people who want to write high performance JDBC for accessing Oracle. It takes the view that to build the best application you need to understand the underlying database as well as JDBC. If you are writing Oracle JDBC you need this book. If you are writing platform neutral JDBC you could still benefit from this book as it would allow you to avoid performance bottlenecks specific to Oracle.

Excellent Oracle-JDBC Book
This is an excellent book with a very refreshing hands-on approach to JDBC programming for the Oracle database. The author tackles fundamental database concepts, with a strong emphasis on performance. The approach that the author uses includes the right combination of theoretical fundamentals and hands-on coding and testing. The result is a book that is ideal for both the novice user looking to understand fundamental database concepts and the advanced user looking for in-depth analyses using code examples and benchmark numbers. Best of all, the book is not just about the Oracle database in isolation. It is set within the context of JDBC programming, bringing theworld of RDBMS programming to the Java community.
This book is a must have for the enterprise software developer who is even half serious about leveraging the enormous power of the Oracle database in her/his application. ... Read more

Product Description

Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g shows how to take advantage of Oracle Databases built–in feature set for working with location–based data. A great deal of the information used in business today is associated with location in some way, and analysis of that data is becoming ever more important in todays mobile and highly connected world. In Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g, authors Ravi Kothuri and Albert Godfrind address

• The special nature of spatial data and its role in professional and consumer applications
• Issues in spatial data management such as modeling, storing, accessing, and analyzing spatial data
• The Oracle Spatial solution and the integration of spatial data into enterprise databases
• How spatial information is used to understand business and support decisions, to manage customer relations, and to better serve private and corporate users

When you read Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g, you’re learning from the very best. Ravi Kothuri is a key member of Oracle’s Spatial development team. Albert Godfrind consults widely with Oracle clients on the implementation of Oracle Spatial, develops training courses, and presents frequently at conferences. Together they have crafted a technically sound and authoritative fountain of information on working with spatial data in the Oracle database.

What you’ll learn

Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g delivers in helping you fully understand Oracles spatial data feature set. In reading the book, you’ll learn

• About new Oracle Spatial features in Oracle Database 11g, including support for the European Petroleum Standards Group (EPSG) data model, the ability to publish to Google Earth, integration with Google Maps, and much more
• The use of Oracles built-in SDO_GEOMETRY data type for storing location–based data
• How to geocode your data, beginning with postal addresses and ending with SDO_GEOMETRY objects that enable future analysis as well as forming the foundation of working with spatial data within Oracle
• How to create and display maps to help you visualize and analyze your geocoded data
• About network modeling, which is useful in computing routes, travel distances, and proximity based upon travel time
• How to optimize analysis of your spatial data by creating spatial indexes and custom operators

Who is this book for?

Customer Reviews (5)

A bit underwhelming
This book has some good stuff and it is great that this book exists but the value for the size and cost is not there. You can read 50 pages and learn one new thing that you cannot pickup by using the tools.I expected more on tuning and understanding of the indexer but not great for that.

The best I've seen
This book is the best that I've seen of its kind. It covers just about every aspect of Oracle Spatial, from spatial metadata right through to indexing and querying. It contains many quality examples that are easy to follow if you already have a simple understanding of the concepts behind spatial information.

It paid for itself in the first weekk of having it.

Recommended for everyone that uses Oracle Spatial 10g onwards.

Essential Purchase For Oracle DBers Working With Spatial Data
'Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g' is one of those books that take a niche topic and then focus on it.For this book by Apress the topic is the spatial package that comes for Oracle 11.With nearly 800 pages of content spread over 17 chapters you will learn all the ins and outs of this important technology.Used extensively for geographical analysis but also for anything else that reads in spatial data this is a necessary purchase for anyone working with said types of data.

Great work by Apress as per usual and a must buy for any Oracle admins and/or developers that need this package.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Oracle Spatial
this book has all you need to know about Spatial, chapters are easy to read....and the advanced subjects are very well explained....certainly a must have one....

Must a read book
I am currently working on system, the involves Oracle Spatial technology. This book was going to be me first step (almost) towards getting familliar with Spatial. I was little anxious about the level expected from the book's reader: "Intermediate-Advanced"; I haven't exactly felt like "advanced" in Oracle technology. It wasn't so bad; the book is really well written and I had no problems with understanding anything.

The book consists of six parts (including appendices). All the parts cover following subjects:
- Introduction to the technology. Technologies, to be exact; architectures of both, Spatial and Locator options are described -
differences between them.
- Basic concepts - basic know-how. The part, I needed the most met my expectations in 100%. It helped me to start coding really fast.
- Network analysis - more advanced subjects covered, the mostly ARE NOT available in Locator option (one I have access to); network analysis and routing engine, geometry engine. Also indexes and operators are described in one chapter of the book.
- Map Visualisation and creation - a lot of knowlege about MapBuilder, MapViewer and it's API - really helpful for anybody, who needs to visualize maps stored in Spatial.
- Sample applications and case studies - I always look for such chapter in every IT book I read. This is the place, where programmer might find a lot of answers to one's questions. There is also a chapter in this part, the belongs to the category "MUST read" - "Tips, common mistakes and common errors".

There is also sample code available for the readers - to be downloaded from the publisher's web page. It is really helpful to have it while reading the book. There is only one "but" - was, to be exact. About two weeks after the book had been published, the code wasn't available on the page. At least, I couldn't find it. Now it is possible to download it from here.

The book is really good - "must have" of every Oracle Spatial user. It might be helpful for the beginner and advanced developers as well. I would recommend it to everyone, who needs to get to know Oracle Spatial well. All the 756 pages (excluding index) are filled with reliable knowledge, especially that one of the authors - Ravi Kothuri is a member of Oralce spatial development team, where he works as software architect and team leader. ... Read more

Product Description
The evolution of Oracle has led to a revolution in design practices. For Oracle 10g, database physical structures have become more complex than ever before and database designers face multiple ways to implement their logical models. IS students studying database design and administration need to be able to implement management systems in a way that enables fast performance while preserving logical data structures.Physical Database Design Using Oracle correlates logical data models with the physical implementation structures that Oracle provides. It allows students to learn how to take logical data models and convert them into a series of data structures that permit fast and easy logical access to data. Oracle 10g offers object-oriented data structures, pure relational data structures, and specialized data structures such as index-organized tables. Given so many choices, future DBAs and Oracle designers must understand the approprate use of each physical technology and how it maps to their data models.This textbook is targeted at undergraduate and graduate IS students working to become the Oracle professionals of the near future. It is expected that they already have exposure to basic Oracle database administration. The expert guidance provided by this textbook offers the insight needed to choose appropriate physical models for mission-critical applications. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Good suggestions but ... sexist... !
Noticed this book, as it is a recently-published book on database design.Not as detailed and researched as one of the typical O'Reilly publisher books, but nonetheless, still pretty interesting in the reccomendations and suggestions the author had to say.

Was somewhat perplexed by the sexist remarks on page 19, however.The author described what an "Educated Idiot" is, someone with a PhD and that is given a role in database design, but has "no real-world experience", and "lacks necessary technical skills".In addressing such a person, the author uses the word "she" multiple times, as if this person must be a woman.There is a reference again on the next page too...Amusing...

Good Review
This is a great book if you were a DBA and trying to find out what the upgrades were since 7.3.I would not consider this a reference book, but a good refresher.If a novice were to pick it up, he still would have no idea what objects are, or how to normalize the data.What I didn't like was the Ph.D. bashing, there was no need for that.the writer should have stayed on a positive note.The commentary belongs in a commentary.

Really quite good
Very little has been written on how important the physical design can be to Oracle performance.This book describes these exact issues and has some excellent examples of the best methods for chosing the best underlying physical structures for your Oracle data.

Poorly Written and Researched
Not sure where the good rating came from, but this book is poorly written and seems to not have been researched much, if at all.Limited test cases show that material was probably grabbed from some other publication, with little application to the application at hand.It is now a table leveller in the office.

Something for all DBAs
Every DBA will benefit from this book.It is an often overlooked area by most dba's under a deadline to take a data model into physical layout.The information on 10g is worth the price of the book alone. ... Read more