Oracle in a Nutshell

Introduced a quarter-century ago, the Oracle database remains the leading enterprise relational database management system (RDBMS) in the world. Oracle is a complex system, offering a myriad of products, languages, and tools. Frequent updates, releases, and editions complicate the ability of Oracle users to keep up with the huge amounts of frequently changing information about the database and its capabilities. The goal of "Oracle in a Nutshell" is to bring order to the chaos of Oracle information -- to pull together the most essential information on Oracle architecture, syntax, and user interfaces. The content and format of this book combine to boil down vital Oracle commands, language constructs, parameters, and file formats in a succinct and highly accessible desktop reference. The book covers the information that database administrators PL/SQL and Java developers, and system, network, and security administrators need as they manage Oracle databases and write code for these databases. It includes: Oracle Foundations - Overview of the Oracle architecture (memory structures and fundamental concepts), Oracle's various editions and packaging options, summary of the initialization file parameters and data dictionary views, and fundamentals of Oracle's concurrency scheme, security mechanisms (privileges, profiles, roles), and networking files (TNSNAMES.ORA, SQLNET.ORA, LISTENER.ORA, DAP.ORA, NAMES.ORA, CMAN.ORA) and options. Oracle Languages - Syntax summary for SQL language statements, SQL function calls PL/SQL language statements and characteristics, PL/SQL built-in package headers, and Java (JDBC and SQLJ) interfaces to the Oracle database. Oracle Tools - Commands provided with SQL*Plus, SQL*Loader, Import and Export, Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) and other backup/recovery methods, Oracle Enterprise Manager, and various performance tuning tools (Explain Plan, TKPROF, AUTOTRACE, UTLBSTAT, UTLESTAT, Statspack).

Rick Greenwald has been active in the world of computer software for nearly two decades, including stints with Data General, Cognos, and Gupta. He is currently an analyst with Oracle Corporation. He has published seven books and countless articles on a variety of technical topics, and has spoken at conferences and training sessions across six continents. In addition to Oracle in a Nutshell, Rick's books include Oracle Essentials: Oracle9i, Oracle8i, and Oracle8 (principal author with Robert Stackowiak and Jonathan Stern, O'Reilly & Associates, 2001), Oracle Power Objects Developer's Guide (principal author with Kasu Sista and Richard Finklestein, Oracle Press, 1995); Mastering Oracle Power Objects (principal author with Robert Hoskins, O'Reilly & Associates, 1996); Using Oracle Web Server (principal author with many others, Que Publishing, 1997); The Oracle WebDB Bible (principal author with Jim Milbery, IDG Books Worldwide, 1999); and Administering Exchange Server (principal author with Walter Glenn, Microsoft Press, 1999). David C. Kreines is the Manager of Database Services for Rhodia, Inc., a subsidiary of Rhone-Poulenc S.A., and author of Oracle SQL: The Essential Reference (O'Reilly & Associates, 2000) and coauthor of Oracle Database Administration: The Essential Reference (with Brian Laskey) (O'Reilly & Associates, 1999) and Oracle Scripts (with Brian Lomasky) (O'Reilly & Associates, 1998). Dave has worked with Oracle as a developer and database administrator since 1985, on a wide variety of platforms, from PCs to mainframes. He is an Oracle Certified Professional, is certified as a DBA, and has been a frequent contributor to Oracle conferences, user groups, and publications, both in the United States and in Europe. Dave served two terms as president of the International Oracle Users Group -Americas (IOUG-A), and spent ten years on the board of directors.