Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly easy to read
Review: This is one of the best written and easiest to read of any technical book I've ever read. We've often provided this book to students in the Oracle classes that we teach. Furthermore, when I was on an Oracle consulting project a couple of years ago, working alongside consultants from Oracle Corporation, I noticed that the Oracle Corp consultants weren't using the Oracle Corp documentation on PL/SQL for reference - they all had this book.Steve Feuerstein presents a tremendous overview and in-depth analysis of the PL/SQL language with practical examples. He includes several design recommendations and practical real world examples and recommendations that make this a solid book for PL/SQL professionals who are serious about writing production code.
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Summary: ODTUG Review
Review: Most of us have had to learn PL/SQL at some point in our Oracle careers, and I am sure many of you have become quite expert. On the other hand, some of you may be new to this world of PL/SQL and are looking for a basic text that will educate you in the use of this language. The "Bible" for PL/SQL programming has long been the earlier editions of this book, and Steven Feuerstein has been considered the guru of PL/SQL programming for as many years as I can remember. Steven has completely revised his best-known work into a new, third edition. I thought that it was time to take a look at this new edition and see what it has to offer both groups. Here is what I found. Steven now provides complete coverage of PL/SQL from Oracle RDBMS version 7.3.4 through Oracle9i Release 2. He has incorporated all the information from his book PL/SQL Guide to Oracle8i New Features into this book. He has added a new chapter on database triggers and included especially useful information on DDL triggers and database event triggers. He has added new content on the PL/SQL runtime architecture, creating and running PL/SQL programs, and calling Java methods from within PL/SQL. He has integrated all the new Oracle9i features throughout the text, instead of placing them in a separate chapter. In order to make the book fit into 1,000 pages, some of the example code was removed and can be found on O'Reilly's Web site at www.oreilly.com/catalog/oraclep3 as a zipped file. About 300 files are available. Approximately 200 pages that were pruned from the second edition that still have some utility are also available there. The book is organized much the same way as previous editions, with a few changes. There are 23 chapters divided into six parts: Part I: Programming in PL/SQL. These three chapters orient you to PL/SQL, its history, utility, and basic programming constructs.
Part II: PL/SQL Program Structure. Conditional, sequential, iterative control structures, and exceptions are covered in these three chapters.
Part III: PL/SQL Program Data. Six chapters cover how to manipulate data within PL/SQL procedures and functions. Strings, numbers, datatypes, including the new Oracle9i datatypes, and records and collections are also discussed.
Part IV: SQL in PL/SQL. There are three chapters that cover transactions, data retrieval, and the use of dynamic SQL.
Part V: PL/SQL Application Construction. The four chapters in this part discuss procedures and functions, packages, triggers, and managing PL/SQL applications.
Part VI: Advanced PL/SQL Topics. There are four final chapters that cover the runtime architecture, object-orientation in PL/SQL, PL/SQL and Java, and external procedure calls. Steven states in his preface that the three objectives of this book are to
1.take full advantage of the features of PL/SQL,
2.use PL/SQL to solve your problems, and
3.write efficient, maintainable code. Each chapter has been crafted to address these three objectives. His writing style is clear, succinct, and reads like he is sitting next to you chatting about the new things he's learned. The book is absolutely full of code examples. Most of the examples are posed as practical programming problems. He carefully walks you through the lines of example code, clearly explaining the logic used for each step of the program, and points out version-based differences. Steve is also not afraid to express an opinion and will tell you exactly why he chooses a particular method for solving a problem. Notes explaining tips and traps proliferate the book. So, what do I think about this new edition? His book has the most comprehensive coverage of PL/SQL that I have ever seen. The code examples achieve a level of sophistication that is truly elegant. For a PL/SQL beginner, this book can be the source of all PL/SQL wisdom. Even if you have been programming with PL/SQL for a time, I think you will find the information on Oracle9i new features useful and will find many nuggets of information that can be used immediately to improve your code.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Learning Tool; Not Really a Reference
Review: This is an excellent book to learn the language of PL/SQL; but not really a good reference material.
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Summary: The TRUE bible for PL/SQL programming (not the one by Urman)
Review: I recommend this book wholeheartedly for beginners as well as veterans of PL/SQL. Especially against the Oracle Press book by author Scott Urman. That book (though it covers the basics), it does not give you the tips and tricks or insight as does Steve's book. The O'Reilly series book is well crafted, with excellent examples. The style of writing is humorous as well as straight forward. And it is a companion amongst other Oracle books by O'Reilly. O'Reilly Publishing seems to know Oracle better than Oracle Press knows itself. Gio
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Summary: Infinite riches in a small room
Review: This book is a carefully documented manual for learning PL/SQL that is written by the one and only Steven Feuerstein. His unique style of writing coupled with his intricate knowledge of the subject makes it a pleasure to read and learn.
Programmers will actually learn the most effective way to write the best PL/SQL code by following Stevens practical advice from real life experiences with PL/SQL and the examples that are so clearly explained. Don't miss the humor too.
The book covers virtually everthing one needs to learn PL/SQL including Packages, procedures, functions and Oracle's built-ins. It also tells you where and when the differences arise between the various revisions and their numbers. A great benefit along with the book is a diskette with code and a few utilities. Most of the code is generic and can be simply cut and pasted into the application with little or not trouble. If you don't have this bible of Oracle on your desk, then you don't want to learn PL/SQL.
And remember Steven is the world's leading authority on PL/SQL. Drop in at his site to know more about him http://www.revealnet.com
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Summary: useless as a reference
Review: As a moderate users of PL/SQL I purchased the book both as a reference manual and to chart the differences between Oracle 8 and 9.
I found the book useless in both regards. It is difficult to look for specific items as the book is organized as a teaching guide and not a users guide.
In addition, coverage of how to use and program stored procs and triggers is inadequate at best. I would not recommend this book to anyone.
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Summary: Good PL/SQL book (Only PL/SQL)
Review: I haven't worked on PL/SQL for while so looking for book which gives me well inside on PL/SQL. It starts with good introduction & move on to advance level. I am Java Developer & this book provides perfect details about PL/SQL for programmer only. Buy it if you want to know about PL/SQL ONLY.
Rating: 
Summary: Taught me a lot of things I did not know
Review: I really thought I knew PL/SQL until I read this book. It contains so much great, hidden information. It is a great value at triple its price. If you do any serious Oracle PL/SQL coding, GET THIS BOOK!
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Summary: Is your PL/SQL code manageable?
Review: I just finished reading this book from cover to cover. Huuhh, with 900+ pages it certainly deserves to be called a PL/SQL bible.
It's almost eight years since I purchased first edition of the Steven's PL/SQL Programming. Back then, you didn't have much of the choice, you either swallow official Oracle PL/SQL documentation (that I always found dry and tedious to read) or more likely order PL/SQL Programming from O'Reilly. The book, that was (and still is!) in the class of it's own (O'Reilly probably sold more copies of Steven's PL/SQL Programming than all other publishers of similar PL/SQL titles together).
The organization of the book is even (slightly) better compared with the first and second edition. The writing style is as good as it was in previous two editions.
What I liked the most is the fact that book covers all PL/SQL features, from Oracle 7.3 to 9.2 throughout the chapters in a way that doesn't feel like authors just "patched" previous edition of the book with some new chapters. This was the main reason that I decided that it's worthwhile to take some time and read third edition from cover to cover. The second good news is that they didn't overload the book with code examples, instead you can download all source code (printed or just mentioned in the book) from O'Reilly site.
Strictly speaking this book is not the reference manual (fortunately; what's the point to mimic Oracle reference stuff anyway)! It's true that it covers all important aspects of PL/SQL and as such you'll want to have this book at hand when coding. Of course there will always be time when you'll need to check Oracle manuals for some true reference (syntax, built-in packages...).
If your objective is not only to master PL/SQL language but also to learn how to write manageable code, then look no further. Thank you Steven!
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Summary: Great PL/SQL reference
Review: The book is really a reference manual. You'll certainly learn a lot by reading the book from cover to cover, but you'll probably get more out of it by just having it handy by your computer. Each chapter contains clear explanations on the specific subject, a function reference (if applicable), and troubleshooting. The book has been updated for Oracle 9i, which is nice, however, the book is still a great reference even if you're not using 9i. Certain sections of the previous edition were condensed or removed for this edition, however, those sections are available in their entirety on O'Reilly's web site. This extra information may be useful to readers running older versions of Oracle (like me). All the examples used in this book can also be downloaded from the web.
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