Oracle SQL and PL/SQLs

Course Description

Since its release in 1979, Oracle Database has become the leading relational database management system in the world. Today, Oracle has a huge base of customers and continues to dominate the database market, especially for mission-critical enterprise systems. In short, Oracle Database and Oracle database programmers are here to stay.

Over the years, Oracle Database has gained a reputation for being expensive and difficult to use. Today, however, Oracle offers the Express Edition of Oracle Database as a free download. Oracle also offers a free product called SQL Developer that makes it easier to work with an Oracle database. That makes this course possible.

This course is designed for application developers who need to work with an Oracle database. It shows how to code all the SQL statements that developers need for their applications. It shows how to code these statements so they run efficiently. And it works for users of any release of Oracle Database through 10g and 11g. 

This course is also a good choice for anyone who wants to learn standard SQL. Since SQL is a standard language for accessing database data, most of the SQL in the course will work with any database management system. As a result, once you learn to how to use SQL to work with an Oracle database, you can transfer most of what you have learned to another database management system such as SQL Server, DB2, or MySQL.

This course is also the right first course for anyone who wants to become a database administrator, although it doesn't present all of the advanced skills that are needed by a DBA, it will get you started in that direction. 

Prerequisites

None at all!

Although you will progress through the course more quickly if you have some development experience, everything you need to know about databases and SQL is presented in the course. As a result, you don't need to have any programming background to take the course.

Software Required

You can download all the software you need from Oracle's web site for free. That includes

  • Oracle Database Express Edition
  • Oracle SQL Developer
  • SQL documentation
  • PL/SQL documentation

Course Textbook

Murach's Oracle/SQL and PL/SQL 
Joel Murach
ISBN: 1-890774-50-9
Buy the book from Amazon
Buy the book from Murach (Free Shipping)

Outline:

Week 1

  • Introductions/Gain familiarity with the Classroom
  • Download the software/ensure that it works
  • An introduction to relational databases and SQL

Week 2

  • How to use Oracle SQL Developer and other tools

Week 3

  • How to retrieve data from a single table

Week 4

  • How to retrieve data from two or more tables

Week 5

  • How to code summary queries
  • How to code subqueries

Week 6

  • How to insert, update, and delete data
  • How to work with data types and functions

Week 7

  • How to design a database
  • How to create tables, indexes, and sequences

Week 8

  • How to create views
  • How to manage database security

Week 9

  • How to write PL/SQL code

Week 10

  • How to manage transactions and locking
  • How to code stored procedures, functions, and triggers

Week 11

  • How to create triggers
  • How to work with timestamps and intervals

Week 12

  • How to work with large objects