Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide (Definitive Guides) 2nd Edition

A must have if you do any kind of queries with Oracle.

I have found this book to be a really great guide that is easy to follow. The author provides a gentle, but thorough introduction to topics like creating reports, writing scripts, customization etc. He offers methodologies and alternatives beyond the syntax that you can find in the manual. For example, he presents and evaluates six ways one can achieve some kind of if-then-else flow control in SQL*Plus.[...]

I enjoyed this book. It described features of SQL Plus that I did not even know it had. I go to this book when there is something in SQL Plus that I was not sure about (setting or parm) and I am always able to find the answer.

This book covers the basics of using SQL*Plus for adhoc querying through using it for batch processing. An excellent, extremely readable reference.

It has been very useful...

I had bought this text a few years ago to learn SQL. Little did I know then that SQL Plus is a "sand box" that contains SQL. Needless to say that I was disappointed and had to shelf this book.However, after reading an introductory book on SQL and writing lots of code, I revisited this text and found it to be quite useful.In summary, this should not be used by SQL novices. This book teaches "SQL Plus" and not SQL per se. Once, you have learnt the language, this book will come handy to1, execute sql queries (by scripting)2, format the report3, set up the development environment4, to discover the database5, and much much moreOne reason for not assigning five stars is the lack of ease when it comes to downloading the sample code and installing it on my machine.

The glories of the command line. SQLPlus [I am not going to write that irritating asterix] is an acknowledgment of the reality that for many large computer programs and operating systems, a command line utility is vital. The book explains this for the specific instance of hooking to Oracle's database. It is meant as a definitive reference. Showing every command, often accompanied by example code.For an Oracle DBA, a good acquaintance with SQLPlus is probably mandatory. From the book, you can see how to quickly interrogate the database and get results in various useful paginated formats. Plus, and vitally, you can see how to build script files that can be run, where these files encode your experience in amassing customised sequences of commands specific to your needs. Exactly analogous to batch files in most operating systems, and just as useful.Along those lines, SQLPlus is conceptually not that hard. When using Oracle, it is often far more important, and harder, to design optimal tables for a given problem.

A bit out of date for the new features of oracle.but it is still a cool book. I keep it with me when I travel.