Mastering Oracle SQL

Dedication;
Preface;
Why We Wrote This Book;
Objectives of This Book;
Audience for This Book;
Platform and Version;
Structure of This Book;
Conventions Used in This Book;
Comments and Questions;
Acknowledgments;
Chapter 1: Introduction to SQL;
1.1 What Is SQL?;
1.2 A Brief History of SQL;
1.3 A Simple Database;
1.4 DML Statements;
Chapter 2: The WHERE Clause;
2.1 Life Without WHERE;
2.2 WHERE to the Rescue;
2.3 WHERE Clause Evaluation;
2.4 Conditions and Expressions;
2.5 WHERE to Go from Here;
Chapter 3: Joins;
3.1 Inner Joins;
3.2 Outer Joins;
3.3 Self Joins;
3.4 Joins and Subqueries;
3.5 DML Statements on a Join View;
3.6 ANSI-Standard Join Syntax in Oracle9i;
Chapter 4: Group Operations;
4.1 Aggregate Functions;
4.2 The GROUP BY Clause;
4.3 The HAVING Clause;
Chapter 5: Subqueries;
5.1 What Is a Subquery?;
5.2 Noncorrelated Subqueries;
5.3 Correlated Subqueries;
5.4 Inline Views;
5.5 Subquery Case Study: The Top N Performers;
Chapter 6: Handling Temporal Data;
6.1 Internal DATE Storage Format;
6.2 Getting Dates In and Out of a Database;
6.3 Date Manipulation;
6.4 Oracle9i New DATETIME Features;
6.5 INTERVAL Literals;
Chapter 7: Set Operations;
7.1 Set Operators;
7.2 Using Set Operations to Compare Two Tables;
7.3 Using NULLs in Compound Queries;
7.4 Rules and Restrictions on Set Operations;
Chapter 8: Hierarchical Queries;
8.1 Representing Hierarchical Information;
8.2 Simple Hierarchy Operations;
8.3 Oracle SQL Extensions;
8.4 Complex Hierarchy Operations;
8.5 Restrictions on Hierarchical Queries;
Chapter 9: DECODE and CASE;
9.1 DECODE, NVL, and NVL2;
9.2 The Case for CASE;
9.3 DECODE and CASE Examples;
Chapter 10: Partitions, Objects, and Collections;
10.1 Table Partitioning;
10.2 Objects and Collections;
Chapter 11: PL/SQL;
11.1 What Is PL/SQL?;
11.2 Procedures, Functions, and Packages;
11.3 Calling Stored Functions from Queries;
11.4 Restrictions on Calling PL/SQL from SQL;
11.5 Stored Functions in DML Statements;
11.6 The SQL Inside Your PL/SQL;
Chapter 12: Advanced Group Operations;
12.1 ROLLUP;
12.2 CUBE;
12.3 The GROUPING Function;
12.4 GROUPING SETS;
12.5 Oracle9i Grouping Features;
12.6 The GROUPING_ID and GROUP_ID Functions;
Chapter 13: Advanced Analytic SQL;
13.1 Analytic SQL Overview;
13.2 Ranking Functions;
13.3 Windowing Functions;
13.4 Reporting Functions;
13.5 Summary;
Chapter 14: SQL Best Practices;
14.1 Know When to Use Specific Constructs;
14.2 Avoid Unnecessary Parsing;
14.3 Consider Literal SQL for Decision Support Systems;
Colophon;