Oracle SQL*Plus Pocket Reference

Chapter 1. Oracle SQL*PlusPocket Reference

Introduction

The Oracle SQL*Plus Pocket Reference is a quick-reference guide to SQL*Plus. Most of this book consists of a SQL*Plus syntax reference. While I don’t intend this book to be used as a tutorial for learning SQL*Plus, you will also find sections that quickly review the basics of selecting data from a database and formatting that data into a report. I’ve also included a chapter on SQL statement tuning showing you how to use Oracle’s EXPLAIN PLAN statement and describing all the optimizer hints.

The purpose of this pocket reference is to help SQL*Plus users find the syntax of specific language elements. It is not a self-contained user guide; basic knowledge of SQL*Plus is assumed. For more information, see Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide, by Jonathan Gennick (O’Reilly & Associates, 1999).

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Debby Russell for her tireless editing. Thanks to Ken Jacobs and Alison Holloway of Oracle Corporation for pointing me to information on the new HTML features in release 8.1.6. Thanks also to Mike Sierra who did the text conversion, and Jeff Holcomb for the copyedit and for managing the production process.

Conventions

UPPERCASE

Indicates SQL*Plus, SQL, or PL/SQL keywords.

lowercase

Indicates user-defined items such as table names.

Italic

Indicates filenames, emphasis, introduction of new terms, and parameter names.

Constant width

Used for code examples.

[ ]

Used in syntax descriptions to denote optional elements.

{ }

Used in syntax ...