Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices: Optimizing Oracle Code

by Steven Feuerstein

Overview

In this book, Steven Feuerstein, widely recognized as one of the world's experts on the Oracle PL/SQL language, distills his many years of programming, writing, and teaching about PL/SQL into a set of PL/SQL language "best practices"--rules for writing code that is readable, maintainable, and efficient. Too often, developers focus on simply writing programs that run without errors--and ignore the impact of poorly written code upon both system performance and their ability (and their colleagues' ability) to maintain that code over time.Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices is a concise, easy-to-use reference to Feuerstein's recommendations for excellent PL/SQL coding. It answers the kinds of questions PL/SQL developers most frequently ask about their code:

• How should I format my code?
• What naming conventions, if any, should I use?
• How can I write my packages so they can be more easily maintained?
• What is the most efficient way to query information from the database?
• How can I get all the developers on my team to handle errors the same way?

The book contains 120 best practices, divided by topic area. It's full of advice on the program development process, coding style, writing SQL in PL/SQL, data structures, control structures, exception handling, program and package construction, and built-in packages. It also contains a handy, pull-out quick reference card. As a helpful supplement to the text, code examples demonstrating each of the best practices are available on the O'Reilly web site.Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices is intended as a companion to O'Reilly's larger Oracle PL/SQL books. It's a compact, readable reference that you'll turn to again and again--a book that no serious developer can afford to be without.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449378769
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	04/09/2001
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Steven Feuerstein is considered one of the world's leading experts on the Oracle PL/SQL language. He is the author or coauthor of Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices, Oracle PL/SQL Programming: Guide to Oracle8i Features, Oracle PL/SQL Developer's Workbook, Oracle Built-in Packages, Advanced Oracle PL/SQL Programming with Packages, and several pocket reference books (all from O'Reilly & Associates). Steven is a Senior Technology Advisor with Quest Software, has been developing software since 1980, and worked for Oracle Corporation from 1987 to 1992.

Table of Contents

Dedication;
Preface;
Structure of This Book;
How to Use This Book;
Not All Best Practices Are Created Equal;
About the Code;
Other Resources;
Conventions Used in This Book;
Comments and Questions;
Acknowledgments;
Chapter 1: The Development Process;
Chapter 2: Coding Style and Conventions;
Chapter 3: Variables and Data Structures;
3.1 Declaring Variables and Data Structures;
3.2 Using Variables and Data Structures;
3.3 Declaring and Using Package Variables;
Chapter 4: Control Structures;
4.1 Conditional and Boolean Logic;
4.2 Loop Processing;
4.3 Miscellaneous;
Chapter 5: Exception Handling;
5.1 EXC-00: Set guidelines for application-wide error handling before you start coding.;
5.1 Raising Exceptions;
5.2 Handling Exceptions;
5.3 Declaring Exceptions;
Chapter 6: Writing SQL in PL/SQL;
6.1 SQL-00: Establish and follow clear rules for how to write SQL in your application.;
6.1 General SQL and Transaction Management;
6.2 Querying Data from PL/SQL;
6.3 Changing Data from PL/SQL;
6.4 Dynamic SQL and Dynamic PL/SQL;
Chapter 7: Program Construction;
7.1 Structure and Parameters;
7.2 Functions;
7.3 Triggers;
Chapter 8: Package Construction;
Chapter 9: Built-in Packages;
9.1 DBMS_OUTPUT;
9.2 UTL_FILE;
9.3 DBMS_PIPE;
9.4 DBMS_ JOB;
Appendix A: Best Practices Quick Reference;
A.1 The Development Process;
A.2 Coding Style and Conventions;
A.3 Variables and Data Structures;
A.4 Control Structures;
A.5 Exception Handling;
A.6 Writing SQL in PL/SQL;
A.7 Program Construction;
A.8 Package Construction;
A.9 Built-in Packages;
Colophon;