Mastering Oracle SQL, 2nd Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)[A REVIEW OF THE SECOND EDITION]
Those of you dealing with the latest Oracle 10g, and perhaps frustrated with the quality of the Oracle documentation, might want to consult this second edition. Its greatest difference compared to the first edition is simply that it deals with 10g, whereas the latter talks about 9g. Mishra and Beaulieu explain, with extensive detail and examples, the new features. Like support for unix-like regular expressions within SQL statements. Given that many Oracle users probably hail from a unix/C background, they will welcome this.
Also, for mapping between XML and SQL data types, 10g now integrates XML. This will reduce the impedance mismatch between the object oriented and relational outlooks that bedevil many programmers who have to deal with both.
The only problem I found with this book is its lack of mention of competing databases. Because the authors explicitly assume that you have already committed to using Oracle as your database. Fair enough. But perhaps occasional comments in the text, about how a given command or feature is not possible in another database would be useful and appreciated by Oracle users. Heck, to be fair, on this point, the book is at no relative disadvantage. For example, I have texts on dB2 and MySQL that likewise say zilch about their competitors.

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The vast majority of Oracle SQL books discuss some syntax, provide the barest rudiments of using Oracle SQL, and perhaps include a few simple examples. It might be enough to pass a survey course, or give you some buzz words to drop in conversation with real Oracle DBAs. But if you use Oracle SQL on a regular basis, you want much more. You want to access the full power of SQL to write queries in an Oracle environment. You want a solid understanding of what's possible with Oracle SQL, creative techniques for writing effective and accurate queries, and the practical, hands-on information that leads to true mastery of the language. Simply put, you want useful, expert best practices that can be put to work immediately, not just non-vendor specific overview or theory.

Updated to cover the latest version of Oracle, Oracle 10g, this edition of the highly regarded Mastering Oracle SQL has a stronger focus on technique and on Oracle's implementation of SQL than any other book on the market. It covers Oracle s vast library of built-in functions, the full range of Oracle SQL query-writing features, regular expression support, new aggregate and analytic functions, subqueries in the SELECT and WITH clauses, multiset union operators, enhanced support for hierarchical queries: leaf and loop detection, and the CONNECT_BY_ROOT operator, new partitioning methods (some introduced in Oracle9i Release 2), and the native XML datatype, XMLType.

Mastering Oracle SQL, 2nd Edition fills the gap between the sometimes spotty vendor documentation, and other books on SQL that just don't explore the full depth of what is possible with Oracle-specific SQL. For those who want to harness the untapped (and often overlooked) power of Oracle SQL, this essential guide for putting Oracle SQL to work will prove invaluable.

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Oracle DBA Pocket Guide (Pocket Reference) Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this book on a whim at a bookstore because it claimed to include "quick reference" info on performance. I found that area seriously lacking...
I thought it odd to have sections on installation and planning in here. Hopefully one does not make such decisions with only a pocket guide as a reference. That section could be shortened to a few pages of warnings and a few URLs. The backup and recovery section was great, but it could be shortened up about 5 pages. Same for the security section.
With the extra space, I would put in at least 15 pages on performance tuning.
The data dictionary quick reference is very useful, and if it weren't for that I would probably have given this book away.

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The Oracle database is one of the most popular in the world, and for good reason. It's compatible, scalable, portable, and capable of performing incredibly fast. The advantages Oracle holds over its competition come with a price, however--it's a highly complex database that's becoming more complex with every release. And this level of detail, of course, can begin to weigh on database administrators (DBAs).

Fortunately, the Oracle DBA Pocket Guide from O'Reilly is on the case. This handy reference is designed to help administrators make more effective use of their time by presenting a compact summary of DBA tasks in an easy-to-use form.With this book by your side, you'll have instant access to the most important concepts, best practices, tips, and checklists.Key topics include architecture, installation, configuration, tuning, and backup/recovery.Everything that you absolutely must know to do your job well is right there at your fingertips.

Moreover, the Oracle DBA Pocket Guide covers Oracle Database 9i, as well as its latest release, Oracle Database 10g.The first database designed for enterprising grid computing, Oracle Database 10g significantly reduces the cost of managing the IT environment with a simplified install, reduced configuration and management requirements, and automatic performance diagnosis and SQL tuning.

The latest in O'Reilly's line of bestselling Oracle titles, this book is an invaluable companion for any database administrator--new or experienced--interested in reviewing core Oracle concepts at a glance.

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Oracle PL/SQL for DBAs Review

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(More customer reviews)Are you a developer or database administrator? If you are, then this book is for you! Authors Arup Nanda and Steven Feuerstein, have done an outstanding job of writing a book that allows you to take advantage of the PL/SQL-based functionality in the Oracle database that is the most critical for DBAs.
Nanda and Steven Feuerstein, begin by providing a whirlwind tour of the PL/SQL language, touching on all of the topics DBAs will need to become familiar with--from the basics of the PL/SQL block structure, identifier construction, and program data declarations, to the use of control and error-handling statements, to the construction of procedures, functions, packages, and triggers in PL/SQL. Then, the authors describe PL/SQL cursors and how you can improve database performance by taking advantage of such features as cursor reuse, cursor soft-parsing and soft-closing, and various characteristics of implicit cursors. Next, they explore the use of functions that can be used as data sources for queries and that are used frequently in Extraction, Transformation, and Loading (ETL) operations. The authors then explain how you can use Oracle's tools to build basic encryption and key management systems to protect sensitive data. They continue to explain how you can define policies on database tables so that you can restrict which rows particular users can see or change in those tables. Then, the authors show you how you can extend traditional Oracle auditing to capture both database changes and queries. Next, they discuss situations in which you may need to generate values. Finally, they describe the use of the DBMS_SCHEDULER package in scheduling jobs to be performed at regular intervals.
This most excellent book is here to help you get your job done. More importantly, this book is focused squarely on the language topics of special concern to DBAs.

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PL/SQL, Oracle's powerful procedural language, has been the cornerstone of Oracle application development for nearly 15 years. Although primarily a tool for developers, PL/SQL has also become an essential tool for database administration, as DBAs take increasing responsibility for site performance and as the lines between developers and DBAs blur.

Until now, there has not been a book focused squarely on the language topics of special concern to DBAs Oracle PL/SQL for DBAs fills the gap. Covering the latest Oracle version, Oracle Database 10g Release 2 and packed with code and usage examples, it contains:

A quick tour of the PL/SQL language, providing enough basic information about language fundamentals to get DBAs up and running
Extensive coverage of security topics for DBAs: Encryption (including both traditional methods and Oracle's new Transparent Data Encryption, TDE); Row-Level Security (RLS), Fine-Grained Auditing (FGA); and random value generation
Methods for DBAs to improve query and database performance with cursors and table functions
Coverage of Oracle scheduling, which allows jobs such as database monitoring and statistics gathering to be scheduled for regular execution

Using Oracle's built-in packages (DBMS_CRYPTO, DBMS_RLS, DBMS_FGA, DBMS_RANDOM, DBMS_SCHEDULING) as a base, the book describes ways of building on top of these packages to suit particular organizational needs. Authors are Arup Nanda, Oracle Magazine 2003DBA of the Year, and Steven Feuerstein, the world's foremost PL/SQL expert and coauthor of the classic reference, Oracle PL/SQL Programming.

DBAs who have not yet discovered how helpful PL/SQL can be will find this book a superb introduction to the language and its special database administration features. Even if you have used PL/SQL for years, you'll find the detailed coverage in this book to be an invaluable resource.

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The Multidimensional Data Modeling Toolkit: Making Your Business Intelligence Applications Smart with Oracle OLAP Review

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(More customer reviews)I thought this book was definitely worthwhile. It gave a good explanation of the multidimensional data framework and what can be done with it. Even though I don't use Oracle, I found the discussion interesting and the concepts useful. I do web marketing as a profession and have been curious about what kinds of analyses can be done with OLAP and business intelligence tools. I think this book did a good job of explaining that. I ran across the book at the office, I picked it up and found it very readable. The book included a lot of technical specifics about how to work with the Oracle system, which I glossed over mostly, but was still able to follow the rest of the book just fine. If you want specifics on Oracle (Analytic Workspaces, Oracle OLAP, etc), you'll find them here, if you want the concepts of OLAP and multidimensional data analysis, you'll find that too, all in a well-written volume with a few funny cartoons.

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The Multi-dimensional Data Modeling Toolkit provides an In-depth treatment of Oracle OLAP as well as a comprehensive examination of analytical techniques in a multidimensional OLAP framework. Application developers and database administrators will appreciate this book, packed with examples, tricks and techniques, and concrete illustrations of the programming elements needed to implement high-performance analytical applications. Data miners, statisticians, and power analysts will find the analysis techniques of particular interest.Written in a tutorial style, this book gives, in plain English, a step-by-step development of the defining principles of OLAP analysis through the lens of the programming language at the heart of Oracle's OLAP database option. This book represents over 15 years of hands-on experience developing multidimensional analytic applications for over a dozen companies.Whether you are new to business intelligence or a seasoned practitioner, The Multi-dimensional Data Modeling Toolkit will have something to offer.

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