With Oracle in the process of de-supporting SQLJ, JDBC is now really the only recommended means of interfacing between Java and Oracle. Consequently, this book is a must have for any developer building an Oracle Java application. Many Java developers tend to treat Oracle as a "black box"; as a consequence, developers tend to write incorrect, non-scalable code. If you don't intimately know how Oracle works and expects you to program, you might avoid Oracle extensions to the standard for fear of your code becoming database-dependent. If you give in to that fear, you'll miss out on the extensive out-of-the-box functionality that Oracle offers. This book teaches you how to build efficient, high-performance, and robust Oracle-based JDBC applications. You'll discover the full details of Oracle's implementation of the JDBC 3.0 standard (what it supports, what it doesn't and what extensions Oracle provides), and more. This book tackles issues head-on, detailing concisely and clearly the vital details of Oracle's architecture and mode of operation that directly impact the manner in which JDBC applications should be written. Only when armed with this knowledge, a willingness to exploit the database to its full potential in your JDBC code, and the ability to use Oracle's SQL and PL/SQL features when appropriate, is it possible to write truly efficient, robust, scalable and high performance applications.