Many of us learned to use PL/SQL recently; many did this many years ago. At that time simple problems required simple PL/SQL code, with lots of procedural code in it. Isn't the procedural part what PL/SQL is all about? Yes, it is, but this is also a threat because, when it is not used smartly, the procedural looping might become a performance hog.

Pl/SQL has evolved a lot. Bulk collections should be commonly in use now. Many programmers that support multiple vendors have little or no knowledge about Oracle collections. Because of this they write code like we did during v7, leaving the huge performance benefits, that Oracle has, untouched.

For these programmers this book is a very helpful addition to their library of knowledge. It helps them to easily perform the same task, but maybe 70 times faster, without making the code more complex. Using the advanced techniques described in the book you can do that. Don't mix up "advanced" with "complex". The fun about this is that many make their code complex using simple PL/SQL, trying to gain some performance, instead of effectively using advanced constructs in PL/SQL that in the end make the code easier to read and understand.

There is more to find in the book. Being a DBA, performance attracts a certain amount of attention. This is because performance is important. It greatly impacts the scalability of a database and the end user experience of the application. Other things you might find useful are the interfaces with the outside world, where external procedures can do work that does not fit the characteristics of a database.

Security is also something that attracts a DBA. Here you will find implementations of Virtual Private Database and enough remarks to keep the reader learning for quite a while. For example, how to protect against SQL injection? This again is a very interesting topic that should be taken very seriously. These days no network is safe. So scan every input.

I won't mention everything that is covered, just find a keyboard, your local database, and start reading. Try out the code samples and see where you can modify your existing code to take advantage of the new insights that the book will give you.

How advanced are the techniques described here depends on your mileage. For many the contents will be valuable enough to justify the term "advanced". As a reviewer it was a pleasure to read it and to try to push Saurabh Gupta to his limits. For me, I could use this book, even today.

Ronald Rood

Oracle ACE, Oracle DBA, OCM

PL/SQL is a programming language that is not only used by application developers, but also by database administrators in their daily tasks. This book contains information that every developer and even DBAs should know. As you read this book, you'll definitely learn a lot of new facts about PL/SQL programming. This book provides detailed information on general PL/SQL programming language, analyzing, tuning, tracing, and securing your code.

What I like most about the book is that it contains a lot of examples and helpful scripts for each chapter. This book also contains a lot of questions for the 1Z0-146 examination at the end of each chapter and it's one of the best guides for getting ready to pass the exam.

If you're a PL/SQL developer, whether a beginner or an expert, this book is for you.

Kamran Agayev A.

Oracle ACE, Oracle DBA Expert