Customer Reviews

Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide (Definitive Guides)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Oracle was new to me, although I've worked with other RDBMSs, and I needed a reference for the SQL Plus interface. Gennick's book turned out to be just the thing. The writing is clear, there are lots of examples, and the topics are inclusive -- from the basic environment to advanced scripting and tuning. I've recommended this book to students.

As a mainframe programmer making the transition to the client-server environment, I found this book to be a great introduction to SQL*Plus. The one thing that became immediately apparant (while reading the book), was that one had to work through the examples with SQL*Plus. Gennick is a good author and is able to get the material across in an efficient and effective manner. I highly recommend this book to any individual desiring an introductory and working knowledge of SQL Plus.

I'm a newbie, as far as ORACLE is concerned, I have used a similar Database management system - UniVision, which has it's own language (Vision), I found this book an excellent introduction/guide to SQL*PLUS. So much so, that I've recommended it to colleagues and customers who are more experienced than I am - and they all agree with me. Splendid stuff.

I've been using the book at home with Oracle 8.0.5 for linux and it has been very helpful - I'm an Oracle novice. I would have rated it higher, but the index and/or grouping of some of the concepts is not consistent. For example, one reader noted that the text refers you to chapter 11 to set your default editor - then does not tell you how to do this in chapter 11. As far as I could see, this is true - chapter 11 does not tell you how to do this - but in chapter 4 there is an *example* that shows how to do this (DEFINE _EDITOR = vi). I liked the sections on report and script writing, I thought they were concise yet easy to follow. Overall, I'd recommend the book to another newbie

SQL-Plus is a fundamental tool but it is hard to find a useful guide on the topic in the market. And I am glad finally there is one.

Oracle Sql Plus: The Definitive Guide is really interesting to read. The author writes in a friendly style and depicts each topic with lots of examples ( so many and so usful that you can add to your own libraries ).

Personally, I am much appealed by the author's discussion on reporting, writing scripts and setting environment. If you are not familiar with any of these, you will be greatly awarded when finishing the book. I can bet it!

This book finally answers a need for SQL*Plus users that need something more than a quick reference card, but not an inaccurate tome, like "Oracle 8: the complete reference".

For instance, when it comes to looping, on page 254 you can read "There is no way to write a real loop using SQL*Plus." If you see this, you won't search through another 100 pages of manual trying to find a meaningful example. Excellent, correct, and an excellent balance between conciseness and completeness.

I have even adopted this book for my undergraduate database class.

The glories of the command line. SQLPlus [I am not going to write that irritating asterix] is an acknowledgment of the reality that for many large computer programs and operating systems, a command line utility is vital. The book explains this for the specific instance of hooking to Oracle's database. It is meant as a definitive reference. Showing every command, often accompanied by example code.

For an Oracle DBA, a good acquaintance with SQLPlus is probably mandatory. From the book, you can see how to quickly interrogate the database and get results in various useful paginated formats. Plus, and vitally, you can see how to build script files that can be run, where these files encode your experience in amassing customised sequences of commands specific to your needs. Exactly analogous to batch files in most operating systems, and just as useful.

Along those lines, SQLPlus is conceptually not that hard. When using Oracle, it is often far more important, and harder, to design optimal tables for a given problem.

This book is usefull only for extracting data. There is nothing about inserting updating or deleating. How can it be called "Definitive"?

Jonathan Gennick and co did a good job here. This "Oracle SQL Plus: The Definitive Guide" would be appreciated by most users, although that advanced SQL users who thirst for a unique guidance, having understood the elementary basics of SQL are its primary target. The medium-sized book boasts of updated and revised information whose accuracy are indisputable. Its methodology is as well, dynamic. The pattern of this book is such that tries to turn difficult issues into entertaining ones. It is worth its asking price.

I have found this book to be a really great guide that is easy to follow. The author provides a gentle, but thorough introduction to topics like creating reports, writing scripts, customization etc. He offers methodologies and alternatives beyond the syntax that you can find in the manual. For example, he presents and evaluates six ways one can achieve some kind of if-then-else flow control in SQL*Plus.

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