Expert One-On-One Oracle

Thomas Kyte has a simple philosophy: You can treat Oracle as a black box and shove data inside of it, or you can learn how Oracle works and exploit it as a powerful computing environment. If you choose the latter, you will see there are few information management problems you cannot solve quickly and elegantly.

Kyte has selected the most important features and techniques to discuss in Expert One-on-One Oracle, which he teaches in a proof-by-example manner. He discusses available features, implementing software using these features, and avoiding potential pitfalls.

• Introduction
• What this book is About
• Who Should Use this Book?
• How this book is structured
• Conventions
• Customer Support
• Setting Up
• Setting up the SCOTT/TIGER Schema
• The SQL*PLUS Environment
• C Compilers
• Coding Conventions
• Other Issues

1. Developing Successful Oracle Applications
• My Approach
• The Black Box Approach
• How (and how not) to Develop Database Applications
• Summary
2. Architecture
• The Server
• The Files
• The Memory Structure
• The Processes
• Summary
3. Locking and Concurrency
• What are Locks?
• Locking Issues
• Types of Lock
• What is Concurrency Control?
• Summary
4. Transactions
• Transaction Control Statements
• Integrity Constraints and Transactions
• Bad Transaction Habits
• Distributed Transactions
• Redo and Rollback
• Summary
5. Redo and Rollback
• Redo
• Rollback
• Summary
6. Database Tables
• Types of Tables
• Terminology
• Heap Organized Tables
• Index Organized Tables
• Index Organized Tables Wrap-up
• Index Clustered Tables
• Index Clustered Tables Wrap-up
• Hash Cluster Tables
• Hash Cluster Tables Wrap-up
• Nested Tables
• Nested Tables Wrap-up
• Temporary Tables
• Object Tables
• Summary
7. Indexes
• An Overview of Oracle Indexes
• B*Tree Indexes
• B*Trees Wrap-up
• Bitmap Indexes
• Bitmap Indexes Wrap-up
• Function-Based Indexes
• Function-Based Indexes Wrap-up
• Application Domain Indexes
• Application Domain Indexes Wrap-up
• Frequently Asked Questions About Indexes
• Summary
8. Import and Export
• A Quick Example
• Why you Might Use IMP and EXP
• How They Work
• Caveats and Errors
• Summary
9. Data Loading
• An Introduction to SQL*LOADER
• How to …
• Caveats
• Summary
10. Tuning Strategies and Tools
• Identifying the Problem
• My Approach
• Bind Variables and Parsing (Again)
• Bind Variables and Paring Wrap-up
• SQL_TRACE, TIMED_STATISTICS, and TKPROF
• SQL_TRACE, TIMED_STATISTICS, and TKPROF Wrap-Up
• DBMS_PROFILER
• Instrumentation
• StatsPack
• V$ Tables
• Summary
11. Optimizer Plan Stability
• An overview of the Feature
• Uses of Optimizer Plan Stability
• How Optimizer Plan Stability Works
• Creating Stored Outlines
• The OUTLN User
• Moving Outlines from Database to Database
• Getting Just the Right Outline
• Managing Outlines
• Caveats
• Errors you Might Encounter
• Summary
12. Analytic Functions
• An Example
• How Analytic Functions Work
• Examples
• Caveats
• Summary
13. Materialized Views
• A Brief History
• What you'll need to run the Examples
• An Example
• Uses of Materialized Views
• Making sure your View gets used
• DBMS_OLAP
• Caveats
• Summary
14. Partitioning
• The Uses of Partitioning
• How Partitioning Works
• Summary
15. Autonomous Transactions
• An Example
• Why Use Autonomous Transactions?
• How They Work
• Caveats
• Errors You Might Encounter
• Summary
16. Dynamic SQL
• Dynamic SQL versus Static SQL
• Why Use Dynamic SQL?
• How to Use Dynamics SQL
• Caveats
• Summary
17. InterMedia
• A Brief History
• Uses of InterMedia Text
• How InterMedia Text Works
• Caveats
• Errors You May Encounter
• The Road Ahead
• Summary
18. C-Based External Procedures
• When Are They Used?
• How Are They Implemented?
• Configuring Your Server
• The First Test
• Our First External Procedure
• LOB to File External Procedure (LOB_IO)
• Errors You May Encounter
• Summary
19. Java Stored Procedures
• Why Use Java Stored Procedures?
• How They Work
• Possible Errors
• Summary
20. Using Object Relational Features
• Reasons For Using These Features
• How Object Relational Features Work
• Adding Data Types to your System
• Adding Data Types Wrap-Up
• Using Types to Extend PL/SQL
• Using Types to Extend PL/SQL Wrap-Up
• Object Relational Views
• Summary
21. Fine Grained Access Control
• An Example
• Why Use this Feature?
• How It Works
• Caveats
• Errors You Might Encounter
• Summary
22. n-Tier Authentication
• Why Use n-Tier Authentication?
• The Mechanics of n-Tier Authentication
• Auditing Proxy Accounts
• Caveats
• Summary
23. Invoker and Definer Rights
• An Example
• When to Use Invoker Rights
• When to Use Definer Rights
• How They Work
• Caveats
• Errors You Might Encounter
• Summary

1. Necessary Supplied Packages
• Why Use the Supplied Packages
• About the Supplied Packages
2. Support, Errata and p2p.wrox.com
• The Online Forums at p2p.wrox.com
• Checking the Errata Online at www.wrox.com
• How to Tell Us Exactly What You Think

This book contains so much nitty-gritty details, that you need to be a serious Oracle nerd to appreciate it. If you don't need to understand how to optimize a specific type of query in the storage and configuration system, don't buy it. I you need to do such things (and know a lot about Oracle and RDBMS's to begin with), you'll love it!

In conclusion, it is not for the masses…