Expert PL/SQL Practices: for Oracle Developers and DBAs

Practical advice for PL/SQL coding

This is a book written by 15 of the top PL/SQL experts and each of them gets to take you deep into their chosen subject matter. Books like this are great in the fact that you get in-depth coverage of the material being presented by someone who is passionate about the subject. The authors show you what you can do to help make your code better for not only your benefit, but for the benefit of those that will come later and have to maintain your code. Here is a brief description of some of my favorite chapters: Chapter 1 shows why using PL/SQL might not be the best choice in a given situation. If you can get the job done strictly with SQL, then PL/SQL just adds unnecessary complexity and resource use. If you're coming from a programming background and haven't done much database work, this chapter would be a great reference for you. Chapter 2 covers dynamic SQL and the pros and cons of working with it. In my experience this technique is underused, and too many people try to make a single general purpose (static) query that is hard to tune and work with. When done right, dynamic SQL can offer significant performance benefits without introducing complexity or security issues. Chapter 7 talks about knowing your code. This is not only the code you write, but the code you must maintain. When your manager comes and asks you to make a change to some code, you need to know how that data is being used, what calls that code, and how the change will affect anything using it downstream. By putting the practices mentioned here into use, you will make it easier on yourself when making those changes and will have the confidence to know where and how to test your changes to verify nothing broke with the changes made. Chapter 14 talks about why using standards are important. Many might just gloss over this chapter, but I feel that it's one of the most important things to learn. Whether you're working in a really small group of people or working on a team of 50+ developers, having standards is critical. I've worked in shops where nobody would code to a standard, and that was made much worse when you get a call at 2AM and you had to troubleshoot someones code. I've also worked in shops where there was a documented standard and those late night calls with critical issues were handled quickly because of it. While the company's given standard might not be your preferred coding style, adhering to it will make your life much easier when you have to make changes to someone else's code that followed that same standard. Each of the chapters made me think about my coding style and how I write and test code. There are a lot of ideas to be gleaned from this book. While a couple of the authors will readily admit that their standards might not be right or make sense to be implemented in your shop, they all agree that using some type of standards is critical to saving time in both writing and maintaining code. Interestingly, there is some advice that I will take and use in other programming languages as it's that universal in scope. This is definitely a book that's worth reading if you work with PL/SQL as a developer or DBA, and is one that I will recommend to my coworkers.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

To anthony from a girl

ASK HER OUT it doesnt matter what her friends say they r just jelous or however you spell that.

Anthony adice

You don't really love this girl. Hre is a hint be relaxed and talk to her about things you like. It only gets akward if you think its akward. But if it dont work it will pass over. Everything does and nothing lasts forever.

Anthony

Ok, some people have tried to help me with this, but... they couldnt really help. So here goes nothing.. Ok, I've liked this girl for a really lomg time(like at least 4 years) but I dont really think she likes me back... maybe one year, but not anymore. One day, this evil kid told everyone my secret. Ever since, it s gotten VERY AWKWARD to talk to her and I get all nervous in front of her. My parents took away my Ipod touch, so i cant really text her or anything. She is always surrounded by friends, so if i want to ask her out, it will be even MORE awkward. And to top it off, we are going to different schools next year also... so please help me out here.

Kristin to Trevon

Sorry to Shyan, but personally i would never tell Emily you like the other girl. Not only could she be upset with you, but also Rhiannon(not sure about spelling) might sympathize with her fellow girl, and leave ya too. I do however agree that you should make a pro/con list about each of the girls. Remind yourself what you liked about Emily in the first place, and how that differs from why you liked rhiannon. ~ Kristin

Teagan to Trevon

I think you should tell Emily that you dont like it when she begs you to buy her things. Like this,"Emily, I'm sorry, but I don't like when you beg me to buy things. I like you a lot, but i have feelings for another girl." If she is a true friend, she will understand( hopefully), but i would cry anyway.

Trevon

Okay so i have a gf emily but i really do like her but over two years she has gotten so annoying making me buy her stuff but i also have feelings for my best friend rhiannon she likes me and we hang out alot but i dont want to leave my emily heartbroken because she shows she really does love me and rhiannon does to i cant choose but i want to choose rhiannon because she is not like emily and does beg for me to buy her things and i have known emily more than rhiannon please help me

How Everyone Should Be Practicing PL/SQL

The title of this book is Expert PL/SQL Practices. It should be titled "How Everyone Should Be Practicing PL/SQL". This book contains a huge amount of material. All of it describes the ways that everyone should be using PL/SQL. Chapters of the book are written by different authors. Unfortunately, this is apparent in the style and content of one of my favorite Chapters, Chapter 1. Chapter 1 addresses what all PL/SQL programmers and developers spend most of their time on and where experts agree most performance improvements can be made. The material focuses on accessing database tables, through SQL and PL/SQL, and performing some processing against those tables i.e. row by row processing, loop processing, nested cursors, etc. The author bases his writing on one premise. The premise is that since relational databases are based on set theory, the code to access them should also be based on set theory. For each kind of processing, the author demonstrates how to take advantage of set theory, in PL/SQL programs, to have programs process more quickly. The results are everything the author claims. I did my own test. After making the changes the author recommends, my program ran 16 times faster. This would reduce a five hour run-time down to less than a half hour. Although Chapter 1 is one of my favorite chapters, I was a little disappointed. The author did not include full scripts of his demonstrations. He only included shell outlines of the scripts. He left the rest up to the reader, which wasn't trivial for me. Since he had the full scripts to do the analysis in the book, I cannot think of one good reason why he wouldn't include them. The scripts have not been made available on the publisher's web site either, as are scripts from other chapters in the book. Beyond Chapter 1, every chapter in the remainder of the book also contains material that can provide tremendous processing, performance and personal productivity benefits. Some of these require little or no code. For example: Chapter 6: Bulk SQL Operations discuses manipulating and processing many rows at once, rather than one row at a time. Significant performance benefits are obtained with only minor changes to the code (adding a couple of lines to initiate a bulk fetch). Chapter 7: Know Your Code is going to permanently change your thinking. Every programmer thinks they know their code but this chapter will show you what you don't know. It will even let you take code you are not familiar with and know the data, variables, runtime efficiency, etc. And finally, my second favorite chapter, Chapter 5: PL/SQL Unit Testing. This chapter is written by Sue Harper (the same Sue Harper of Sue Harper's Blog). She shows you how to consistently determine whether a program unit performs as expected and continues to perform as expected. She also discusses how to rerun these tests at any time to verify the results or quickly determine any problems and address them. As you read through this book, chapters will reference other chapters to build relationships, thoughts or principles. I don't know of any other book that takes such a holistic approach, to PL/SQL, as this one does. This book has helped me tremendously. I think it is a must for every PL/SQL library. I highly recommend Expert PL/SQL Practices.

MUST READ book for DBAs & Developers

This is a MUST READ book for all DBAs & Developers. This is like having 30min 1-on-1 session with 15 subject matter experts. As a DBA I always face challenges when explaining to developers the DOs & DONTs in SQL & PL/SQL. The reasons being - 1. PL/SQL & SQL (oracle) has evolved a lot in last few years sometimes we don't keep track of new features. 2. Most of the developers practice either Java & or C++,C# religion, hence they look at PL/SQL with prejudiced view. Even DBAs also get away with their jobs using their ancient knowledge about PL/SQL from 7.3 era. Some of us do try to keep our knowledge up-to-date with white papers/articles, and try to make use of it but not effectively. This book explains developers how/when to use SQL vs PL/SQL effectively. It explains the coding styles/standards & their use. It not only explains DOs, but it explains DONTs as well. DBAs - One of the biggest challenge we normally have to deal with is code review.. making sure that it is not violating standards, compliance guideline and that we get it right when it is ready for implementation.. This book has tips to develop automated scripts/queries... just by running these we will be able to catch most of the violations. Developers - Even though most of them have knowledge about the PL/SQL objects & standard SQLs, but one tend to loose the touch as - They get pressured by deadlines - Busy gaining business knowledge - Keeping up with new features of their native programming languages. This book will provide you in-depth knowledge on using SQL and or PL/SQL "effectively"...Please note this book is not for beginners as it assumes you know the syntax & feature.