Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices

Product Description

In this compact book, Steven Feuerstein, widely recognized as one of the world's leading experts on the Oracle PL/SQL language, distills his many years of programming, teaching, and writing about PL/SQL into a set of best practices-recommendations for developing successful applications. Covering the latest Oracle release, Oracle Database 11g, Feuerstein has rewritten this new edition in the style of his bestselling Oracle PL/SQL Programming. The text is organized in a problem/solution format, and chronicles the programming exploits of developers at a mythical company called My Flimsy Excuse, Inc., as they write code, make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes-and each other. This book offers practical answers to some of the hardest questions faced by PL/SQL developers, including: What is the best way to write the SQL logic in my application code? How should I write my packages so they can be leveraged by my entire team of developers? How can I make sure that all my team's programs handle and record errors consistently? Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices summarizes PL/SQL best practices in nine major categories: overall PL/SQL application development; programming standards; program testing, tracing, and debugging; variables and data structures; control logic; error handling; the use of SQL in PL/SQL; building procedures, functions, packages, and triggers; and overall program performance. This book is a concise and entertaining guide that PL/SQL developers will turn to again and again as they seek out ways to write higher quality code and more successful applications. "This book presents ideas that make the difference between a successful project and one that never gets off the ground. Itgoes beyond just listing a set of rules, and provides realistic scenarios that help the reader understand where the rules come from. This book should be required reading for any team of Oracle database professionals." --Dwayne King, President, KRIDAN Consulting
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #82225 in Books
* Published on: 2007-10-22
* Format: Illustrated
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 292 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
'...(the book) is a good length for a computer book ... 182 pages. Too many computer books these days have many pages and little value. ...So don't buy a copy of this book; instead, buy 12 and make everybody on your team read it - only that way will you get the full benefit of the best practice.' - James Youngman, new@UK, December 2001

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.
Customer Reviews

Just a note5
I really enjoyed reading this book. Even if I don't agree with everything, it's an extremely usefull book to read.

Nice story-telling style to explain the do's and don'ts5
A few years ago I bought the first edition of this book. It had a meaningful classification of the suggested best practices and each of them was presented in a consistent way e.g. Title, Example, Benefits, and Challenges.

As the technology evolved (and the links mentioned were not there anymore), I bought this second edition expecting an update in the available tools to support the best practices and probably one or two chapters related to the new Oracle PL/SQL features. Those things were definitely there but I was surprised to find a totally rewritten book. Steven Feuerstein opted for a story-telling style instead of the formal approach followed in the first edition. By describing a project inside an imaginary company with its imaginary employees (each of them with a different character and a different way of working), it is definitely easier (and funnier) to read.

Good programming practices are common to all languages so I didn't expect any big surprises (naming conventions, layout, keeping procedures short, avoid repeating code, etc). What I found extremely valuable was the chapter about exception handling, the advice about how to implement a test-driven approach for the PL/SQL code, the reference to software tools (free and commercial) that can be used in the development process, and the online resources (PL/SQL code, articles).

My only criticism would be the Quick Reference provided in the book. After having read the book, it was not so easy for me to find again a particular section or example. I had to re-read a few pages in order to find what I was looking for (contrary to the first edition where this was very easy done).

I would recommend this book to any beginner or intermediate PL/SQL developer, although I am sure that even experienced ones will learn valuable things.

A set of 'best practices' for developing applications5
Steven Feuerstein's ORACLE PL/SQL BEST PRACTICES, 2ND EDITION provides the author's years of programming, teaching and writing experiences in a set of 'best practices' for developing applications. The latest release of Oracle is covered in chapters which cover nine categories in chapters which are quick and easy to consult, arranged in a problem/solution format to reflect real-world programming examples and challenges.