Oracle SQL Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach

Have you ever been faced with a new type of query to write, or been asked to create an unfamiliar database object? In such situations, you have probably wanted a good, solid example upon which to build, and instead have been forced into the drudgery of parsing railroad-style syntax diagrams in Oracle's manual set. This book frees you from that drudgery by providing tested and working examples of SQL used to solve common problems faced by developers and database administrators on a daily basis. When you're under pressure to get results fast, Oracle SQL Recipes is there at your side.

• Example-based, providing quality solutions to everyday problems
• Respects your time by putting solutions first and keeping discussions short
• Solves the most commonly encountered SQL problems

• Recognize common query patterns and apply their corresponding solutions.
• Solve common reporting problems such as sorting rows into buckets.
• Troubleshoot SQL performance problems.
• Create and manage database objects such as tables, indexes, and views.
• Work with XML and tree-structured data.
• Take advantage of analytic functions, regular expressions, hierarchical query support, and other powerful aspects of Oracle SQL.

Oracle SQL Recipes is written for developers and database administrators who write SQL to run against an Oracle database. It is further written for those whose time is precious, and who just wish for a good example to help them get on with their work. If you want to spend your time writing SQL rather than reading about it, then this is the right book for you.

Table of Contents

1. The Basics
2. Summarizing and Aggregating Data
3. Querying from Multiple Tables
4. Creating and Deriving Data
5. Common Query Patterns
6. Working with Date and Time Values
7. Strings
8. Working with Numbers
9. Managing Transactions
10. Data Dictionary
11. Common Reporting Problems
12. Cleansing Data
13. Tree-Structured Data
14. Working with XML Data
15. Partitioning
16. LOBs
17. Database Administration
18. Object Management
19. SQL Monitoring and Tuning
20. Database Troubleshooting

Oracle SQL Recipes is a strong play into the market for SQL books, and in particular for Oracle SQL books. Edited by the same person as the SQL Cookbook (14,992 units lifetime) and Mastering Oracle SQL (12,186 units across both editions), Oracle SQL Recipes combines the problem/solution approach of the Cookbook with the Oracle focus of the Mastering book. The result is a solid, solution-oriented book with no direct competition that is sure to get noticed by a large audience of Oracle developers and database administrators.

Bob Bryla is an Oracle 8, 8i, 9, and 10g Certified Professional with more than 15 years of experience in database design, database application development, training, and Oracle database administration. He is the primary internet database designer and an Oracle DBA at Lands' End in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. Bob works with PHP and Oracle on a daily basis to support the back end of the world's #1 clothing web site, landsend.com.

Grant Allen has worked in the IT field for nearly 20 years, specializing in relational database management systems from a variety of vendors. For the past decade, he has worked in the Asia–Pacific region and Europe as a principal database consultant and enterprise architect for several organizations, and he now works in the database field for Google. Grant is a certified DB2 database administrator for DB2 under Linux, Unix, and Windows, and is a past presenter at the International DB2 Users Group conferences.

Darl Kuhn is currently a DBA with Sun Microsystems. He has coauthored three books: Linux Recipes for Oracle DBAs, RMAN Recipes for Oracle Database 11g: A Problem-Solution Approach and Oracle RMAN Pocket Reference. He also teaches advanced database courses at Regis University. Darl performs volunteer database administration work for the Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group. He has a graduate degree from Colorado State University and currently lives near Spanish Peaks, Colorado with his wife Heidi and daughters Lisa and Brandi.