Preface
After publishing more than 1,600 pages on Oracle PL /SQL in two previous books, I marvel at the existence now of this third book covering yet other aspects of the PL /SQL language. I can still remember quite distinctly a moment in September, 1994, when I embarked on writing the first draft of Oracle PL /SQL Programming and wondered: are there really 400 pages worth of material on that much-used and often-maligned procedural language from a nonprocedural (SQL) company? If the answer to that question was a resounding “yes” in 1994, then the answer is a deafening roar today!
Maybe PL /SQL isn’t the answer to every object-oriented programmer’s deepest desires. Maybe developers are badly in need of—and unreservedly deserve—better tools with which to write, debug, and reuse PL /SQL programs. Maybe PL /SQL isn’t perfect, but the reality is that hundreds of thousands of people around the world work (and struggle) with PL /SQL on a daily basis. We all need as much information as possible about how we can make the best possible use of Oracle PL /SQL.
And that is the objective of Oracle Built-in Packages. If you are going to build complex applications using PL /SQL, you will not succeed unless you learn about and figure out how to utilize many of the packages described in this book. Packages are the method of choice for Oracle and third parties like RevealNet, Inc., to extend the base PL /SQL language, to improve ease of use, and to provide brand-new functionality in the language. Writing ...