Oracle development tools come and go, but one of the few constants in the Oracle database environment is the PL/SQL programming language, which has been around for more than a decade. As Oracle's premier tool for building store procedures, PL/SQL uniquely supplements the standard relational database language, SQL, with the features needed to build real-world applications.

Among our best-selling books on PL/SQL, Learning Oracle PL/SQL is the first one a newcomer to the language will want to read. Beginning with a discussion of what PL/SQL is and what it's good for, this book then presents language features, one at a time, in an engaging and readable way. A consistent and understandable example application—the development of a library's electronic catalog system—runs through the chapters.

Topics include:

* Why use PL/SQL at all?
* Fundamental components of the language
* Fast ways to read and write Oracle data
* Organizing code for reusability
* Using PL/SQL to generate web-based applications
* Making sure your PL/SQL application is secure against hackers
* Benefits of using third-party developer tools
* Interacting with the internet (e.g., sending email from the database)
* New PL/SQL features in Oracle9i

Learning Oracle PL/SQL introduces PL/SQL in a way that's useful to a variety of audiences: beginning programmers, new Oracle database administrators, and developers familiar with other databases who now need to learn Oracle.