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"Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition": Learn to Leverage the Full Power and Flexibility of Oracle SQL*Plus

December 14, 2004

Sebastopol, CA--SQL*Plus is an interactive query tool that's available at every Oracle site, from the largest data warehouse to the smallest single-user system. The tool continues to be supported and enhanced with each new version of Oracle, including Oracle Database 10g. Yet despite the wide availability and use of SQL*Plus, few Oracle developers and DBAs know how powerful a tool SQL*Plus can be--until now.

With his newly revised and updated Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition (O'Reilly, US $39.95), author Jonathan Gennick fulfills a mission: "The single, driving objective of this book is to help you squeeze every last possible ounce of productivity and usefulness out of SQL*Plus."

Updated thoroughly for Oracle Database 10g and Oracle9i Database, this in-depth, comprehensive guide is for anyone who wants to make their work with Oracle SQL*Plus more effective, more productive, more useful, and more convenient. It describes SQL*Plus from start to finish and provides a quick reference to all of its commands and options--including capabilities often overlooked or misunderstood.

The book provides step-by-step instruction on anything a reader would want to accomplish with SQL*Plus, including how to:

  • Methodically perform common tasks such as generating a report and extracting data to a flat file
  • Enter and edit commands in the SQL*Plus environment, with and without an external editor
  • Write simple scripts using SQL*Plus
  • Use the basic building blocks of SQL to write queries and other statements
  • Prompt for user input and use that input in SQL statements, PL/SQL blocks, and SQL*Plus commands
  • Stretch the limits of what one can do in a SQL*Plus script by implementing pseudo-IF statements and by using one script to generate another
  • Understand how the Product User Profile, an Oracle security feature, works with SQL*Plus
  • Customize the SQL*Plus environment
  • Use SQL*Plus to view the definitions for database objects such as views, tables, constraints, triggers, indexes, and synonyms
  • Use SQL*Plus as a tuning aid to maximize the performance of SQL queries
  • This second edition contains new information on generating HTML reports from SQL*Plus using the iSQL browser-based tool, loading data via the external table mechanism introduced in Oracle9i Database, and taking advantage of all of the new Oracle9i/10g syntax. A newly written tutorial chapter on SQL is designed to get readers up and running quickly in the language they will most often use from within SQL*Plus.

    Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide is an indispensable resource for anyone who is new to SQL*Plus, a task-oriented learning tool for those who are already using it, and an essential quick reference for every Oracle expert.

    Praise for the previous edition:

    "One puzzling aspect of the O'Reilly series is how the publishers have managed to find competent authors when other companies seem unable to get anyone who can string a sentence together. You really get the feeling that the authors want to tell you how to solve a problem rather than demonstrate how clever they are...information you'd otherwise have to check in four of the Oracle manuals, and there's a human voice helping you."
    --Kay Ewbank, Computer Shopper, July 2000

    Additional Resources:

    Oracle SQL *Plus: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition
    Jonathan Gennick
    ISBN: 0-596-00746-9, 280 pages, $39.95 US, $57.95 CA
    order@oreilly.com
    1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000

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