Oracle Built in Packages (Paperback)

by Steven Feuerstein (Author), Charles Dye (Author), John Beresniewicz (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Steven Feuerstein's first book, Oracle PR/SQL Programming, has become an indispensable reference for both novice and experienced PL/SQL developers. This new book focuses on one particularly important and advanced aspect of Oracle's powerful PL/SQL language -- the built-in packages. Built-in packages are collections of PL/SQL objects stored directly in the Oracle database and available from such programming environments as Visual Basic, Oracle Developer/2000, Oracle application server (for web-based development), and, of course, the Oracle database itself. Built-in packages dramatically extend the capabilities of PL/SQL. For example, DBMS_SQL executes dynamically constructed SQL statements and PL/SQL blocks of code; DBMS_PIPE communicates between different Oracle sessions; and DBMS_LOB accesses and manipulates Oracle8's large objects (LOBs) from within PL/SQL programs. Oracle Built-in Packages is the first and only comprehensive reference to the Oracle built-in packages. It supplies extensive examples on using the built-ins effectively and covers the newest Oracle8 packages. The book comes with a diskette containing the companion guide, an online tool developed by RevealNet, Inc., that provides point-and-click access to more than 175 files of reusable source code and examples.

About the Author
Steven Feuerstein is considered one of the world's leading experts on the Oracle PL/SQL language. He is the author or coauthor of Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices, Oracle PL/SQL Programming: Guide to Oracle8i Features, Oracle PL/SQL Developer's Workbook, Oracle Built-in Packages, Advanced Oracle PL/SQL Programming with Packages, and several pocket reference books (all from O'Reilly & Associates). Steven is a Senior Technology Advisor with Quest Software, has been developing software since 1980, and worked for Oracle Corporation from 1987 to 1992.

Charles Dye is the database architect for Excite, Inc. (www.excite.com), where he is responsible for the design and implementation of the databases theat supply content to some of the world's busiest Web sites. Prior to joining Excite, he was the senior database administrator for The Dialog Corporation. Charles also operates a small but growing consultancy with clients in the San Francisco Bay area and Hong Kong. Once upon a time, before fleeing the East Coast for California skies, Charles taught math and physics at the Georgetown Day School in Washington DC. Charles is a frequent speaker at regional and national Oracle events such as Oracle Open World and IOUG-A Live. His favorite topics are distributed databases in general and advanced replication in particular. He also writes for the Northern California Oracle Users Group newsletter and is an active contributor to the Oracle Internet list server. Look for Charles' upcoming O'Reilly book, Oracle Distributed Systems, available later in 1998. Charles lives in Los Altos, California, with his wife Kathy, daughter Natalie, and labrador Jed. You can email him at [e-mail].

John Beresniewicz is currently a product analyst at Savant Corporation (www.savant-corp.com) responsible for design and development of the Q Diagnostic Center for Oracle. Prior to joining Savant, he was an Oracle DBA with eight years experience in large corporate client-server environments. Developing the Q product's server-side PL/SQL engine has given John extensive and unique experience with using Oracle built-in packages to develop large package-based applications. John is also known in the Oracle user community as a frequent speaker on DBA and PL/SQL topics and an active participant in various Oracle online discussion groups. He has given papers at numerous IOUW, ECO, and local Oracle User Groups. At ECO '97, he received the "Outstanding Speaker" award for his talk on using the PL/SQL built-in packages DBMS_PIPE and DBMS_LOCK. John lives with his wife Arlene in Gaithersburg, MD, where they enjoy going to the $2 movie theater. He can be reached by email at [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 931 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; Pap/Dsk edition (May 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565923758
• ISBN-13: 978-1565923751
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,012,618 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a Lifesaver if you're using Oracle Packages!, March 9, 1999

By A Customer

If you want to take advantage of Oracle's Built-in packages (and you should, if you're doing anything with PL/SQL), this book is a lifesaver. After struggling to follow Oracle's documentation regarding Dynamic SQL in PL/SQL procedures, I spent a few days with this book and was able to understand and utilize the DBMS_SQL package to create some powerful PL/SQL stored procedures. The book (like most of O'Reilly's books) is well-written, and has great examples--something sorely lacking in Oracle's documentation. This and Mr. Feuerstein's other book on PL/SQL "Oracle PL/SQL Programming" are great resources. Look at the O'Reilly Oracle series before you buy similar Oracle Press books.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oracle Built-In Packages, January 18, 2000

By A Customer

This book was a definite job saver. The book covers procedures not covered in Oracle documentation and not even known by Oracle support staff. Each package and procedure is indexed and offers at a minimum a brief description and usage of the procedure. I highly recommend the book for anyone trying to implement complex features of Oracle such as replication.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Encyclopedia on Oracle Packages, March 28, 2000

By	"gjaram" (Los Angeles, CA - USA) - See all my reviews

Oracle should just have O'Reilly publish all of their documentation. Though I haven't had a need to use 85% of Oracle's packages, the ones that I have read are thoroughly documented. Even the author (Steve Feuerstein) mentioned that there are even MORE builtin packages that he didn't put into his book. Word is that he may add more of them.

Excellent book.

Gio