Detailed Description

Over its lifetime, PL/SQL has grown increasingly robust and complex.  Many programmers are barely aware of the new capabilities of PL/SQL, much less fully understand the implications for their programs.  And virtually all PL/SQL developers are too pressured by deadlines to have the time to think through the best way to apply PL/SQL's many features.

This two-day seminar, created specially for Oracle UK, teaches attendees about the most important features of the PL/SQL language, focusing on the major advances in Oracle 9i Database and Oracle Database 10g.  Steven then takes you beyond the basics to show you how to apply these features in the context of best practices, so that you write highly optimized and easily maintained and enhanced applications.

• Improve query and DML performance by an order of magnitude or more with BULK COLLECT, FORALL and PL/SQL collections (array-like structures).
• Unit test your PL/SQL subprograms like never before, utilizing the processes and tools Steven offers in his "six simple steps to unit testing happiness."
• Optimize the construction of your SQL statements in PL/SQL programs, both from the standpoint of performance and maintainability.
• Build modular, reusable code: Steven will show you how to take advantage of packages, local subprogram units, cursor variables, autonomous transactions, and more to craft small, reusable units of code.
• Manage errors by following a standard, consistent process for handling, raising, and reporting errors.
• Apply collections (a critical but under-utilized data structure) to solve a wide variety of problems, from slow query performance to mutating table trigger errors.
• Take advantage of both forms of dynamic SQL in PL/SQL to write the kind of flexible programs that are required in a world driven by the Internet.

Prerequisites

You should have a working knowledge of PL/SQL and at least a year's worth of experience with the language.  All developers, from beginner to expert, will benefit from Steven's ideas and examples.

Oracle Version

Steven will demonstrate techniques and principles that apply to all versions of Oracle, but will also showcase new features in Oracle Database 10g that can dramatically improve the quality and performance of code that you write.