Oracle PL/SQL Programming: A Developer's Workbook

Acknowledgments

I realized a while ago (around the time I completed my second book) that I was having way too much fun (and not nearly enough time) writing about PL/SQL to keep it all to myself. I wanted (and needed) to share the multitude of opportunities with the friends I have made around the world through my writing and through the PL/SQL Pipeline, an absolutely fantastic online, noncommercial community for PL/SQL developers (http://www.revealnet.com/plsql-pipeline). And that is what I have done with this book.

I have shared the opportunity, the excitement, and the agony of writing the material for this book with a number of excellent Oracle technologists: Darryl Hurley, Dwayne King, Vadim Loevski, Jim Lopatosky, Chuck Sisk, and Vladimir Trusevich. I feel particularly indebted to Darryl Hurley, who contributed many hours of effort—and many pages of problems—to this book. I’ve asked each of these contributors to share with you a brief biography:

• Darryl Hurley is a database developer for Mobile Data Solutions, Inc. (http://www.mdsi-advantex.com) in Richmond, BC, Canada. What little free time he has is taken up loving Vanessa or doing something sports-related (occasion-ally both at the same time) and hoping to turn out just like his parents. He can be reached at [e-mail] or [e-mail].

• Dwayne King, founder and principal of KRIDAN Consulting (http://www.kridan-consulting.com) has been working with Oracle for seven years. Specializing in server-side programming and database administration, he has also developed and taught classes in PL/SQL. Based in Ottawa, he has worked on projects across Canada and overseas.

• Vadim Loevski has been developing Oracle applications for the last nine years. He currently works as Senior Application Specialist at Quest Software and is part of the team developing SQL Navigator, a tool for PL/SQL developers.

• Jim Lopatosky is an inhouse consultant for the Maine state government, specializing in Oracle database administration. His material has appeared in Oracle Professional, RevealNet, UKOUG’s Oracle Scene and other sources. He also presents regularly at Oracle conferences.

• Chuck Sisk is a developer and consultant and lives with his wife Stephanie in Western Springs, Illinois. He can be reached at [e-mail].

• Vladimir Trusevich’s technical accomplishments range from creating DB2-PL/I mainframe applications for MVS/ESA for IBM branches in Europe to Oracle server/applications tuning. For the last six years, he has focused on Oracle client/server development, including database design, Dev/Des2K applications development, PL/SQL backend design, and database tuning/administration.

Chris Racicot and Tushar Gadhia, my dedicated friends at Oracle, also assisted me greatly by keeping me current with the state of PL/SQL. Tom White, Steve Hilker, and the rest of the RevealNet crew once again pitched in—the primary evidence of which is the fine Knowledge Base software that will make it a pleasure for you to examine the many files that come with this book. At an entirely different level of involvement and thanks, Andrew Odewahn stepped in towards the end of this process to provide crucial energy and effort to complete the book. Andrew, I couldn’t have it done it without you!

In addition to my contributors, a number of PL/SQL developers provided some awesome technical reviews; others contributed individual problem-solution couplets or simply shared their expertise. My heartfelt thanks, therefore, to Eva Blinder, Solomon Yakobson, John Beresniewicz, Steve Cosner, Joe Testa, Rudresh (Tubby) Rana, Dick Bolz, Bill Pribyl, Nitin Ghagare, Susan Kleinfelter, and countless Pipeliners who contributed time and brain power to share their expertise. Incorporating this input was made much easier by the contributions of Bob Amen and Mary Jane Caswell-Stephenson of O’Reilly, who set up an online collaboration system (via their WebBoard product) to use during the development of the book. Sure, there might still be some errors in the text, but don’t blame them! Blame me, and let me know about any errors, of course, so I can fix them as soon as possible.

Many thanks to the production team at O’Reilly, who again turned out an excellent book. And then there is the preproduction team: Steve Abrams, who worked under severe time pressure to get the files into production; Michael Blanding, who at an earlier stage helped figure out the best format for the workbook; and primarily my editor, Deborah Russell. You’d think that after a while she wouldn’t answer her phone, scared silly that it would be Steven the Obsessive PL/SQL Author with yet another idea for yet another PL/SQL book. To her credit, Deborah has answered all my calls and responded to each and every email, and in between all of that correspondence once again transformed a massive amount of marginally coherent information into what I believe will be an extremely useful text. Hey, Debby, I’ll be getting in touch with you soon about four more books I’d like you to publish!

It is Sunday, March 26, 2000, 8:00 A.M. I sit in my smallish backyard, feel the sun on my face, listen to the birds come back to this world in force, watch flowers pushing out of the ground to meet spring…and I find myself needing to acknowledge and thank my readers. Besides the pleasure of my family (and the burning desire to help realize true equality and justice in this most imperfect world), I realize that nothing is more important to me than knowing that my writings have had a positive impact on others. I had no idea when I started writing my seemingly endless stream of words on PL/SQL that I would strike as deep a chord as it seems I have. It is often the case that when I train a group of developers or give a presentation at a conference, attendees ask for autographs or even to have their pictures taken with me. I am told on a recurring basis that my advice and techniques have had a job- and sometimes life-changing impact. I am more than a little embarrassed and bewildered by all of this, but how I feel about it is actually rather unimportant. What is absolutely crucial is that I respect and understand the responsibility I have to my readers and the debt I owe to all of you.