Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!
Review: The tone is just right [does not waste my time when I am studying to pass an exam by making jokes] and the author even says why I should do something before 'do this' ... just brilliant...
Having the text (scripts upon which the examples are based) I need to type at the beginning of each chapter is great too as you have no idea how many times I have reloaded my operating system and oracle software and then want to go over one or two chapters towards the end of the book.Anyway, its a great book and even relatively bug free too which is awesome and unusual for new Oracle textbooks.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for beginners and those who like to take it easy!
Review: This book is written for beginners with limited programming experience, if you are a programmer by trade, you probably will find this book too elementary. For those not-so-assertive folks (like me) who like to ease their way into a new subject, this is a great introduction to SQL.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good SQL Book, insufficient PL/SQL Book
Review: We used this as a textbook. The first 7 chapters on SQL were great. The last 2 were rushed. You can't teach PL/SQL in 1 and a half chapters. 1 and a half to cover functions, procedures, variables, triggers, cursors, ODBC. Based on the title the section on PL/SQL should have been longer than the one on SQL. Overall, very well written but more of a SQL book than PL/SQL.
Rating:
Summary: The Oracle book I had hoped to find!
Review: As a beginning Oracle student, I've looked through many shelves of Oracle books, trying to find just one that was not dry, written in an encyclopedic fashion, with too little explanation to even get a hook in the topic, much less understand it. This book is written in a friendly style -- as though Christopher Allen is right there talking to you. It has the technical information, but also plenty of explanations to tie it all together. I enrolled in an Introductory Oracle class that uses books published by Oracle. The instructor recommended this book the first night of class and I'm glad I bought it. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: I highly recommed this book for Oracle beginners.
Review: This is an excellent book. I bought it mainly because of the nice reviews here at Amazon. They were right! This is a MOST book for anyone starting with Oracle. I had some experience with SQL on other databases but I wanted to learn Oracle's version. I just got a nice job where I'm going to be working with Oracle Forms and Reports so I needed a nice intro book. This is the book! Nice rythm and very easy to understand.
Rating:
Summary: Good introduction to Oracle SQL-PLUS & PL/SQL
Review: I am an experienced DB programmer, but have never used Oracle. This is a good introduction. The book actually covers more on SQL-PLUS than on PL/SQL as the PL/SQL part doesn't start until page 285. I was able to get through the entire book in one day and feel competent in programming with the Oracle DBMS.
This is a nice, simple step by step book. If you are already familiar with SQL, you can breeze through. Definitely worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: Rank ameteur gets it now!
Review: I do Windows NT to Windows 2000 migrations, and needed to expand my skillset. While I'm only on chapter 2, I've got a much better idea of what Oracle is and how to manipulate databases within an Oracle environment. Clear, concise, lots of lab work... I only wish it has come with a CD-ROM with PDF files of the book & exercises. ((NOTE: do not reply to my email as listed above -- try learn2geek at hotmail dot com.))
Rating:
Summary: 101 Oracle PL/SQL
Review: I cannot say enough about this book. Gives you plain english explanations, step by step practice exercises. Doesn't leave any room for doubt. Great book to learn and/or reinforce forgotten concepts. Emailed author on a Sunday, received a response within 24 hours! A definite asset to keep on hand.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to SQL and PL/SQL
Review: This book does a great job of showing the reader how to write excellent SQL and PL/SQL code. The prior couple of reviews here complain that the book doesn't go far enough into PL/SQL. Well duh! It's a 101 book! It's an introduction for beginners...don't expect it to cover the same material as an advanced PL/SQL book! It starts earlier and ends earlier...which makes it perfect for beginners, and for people who know other languages and want to learn more about SQL and PL/SQL. Overall, an excellent effort that delivers just what it promises.
Rating:
Summary: Title is misleading :Introduction to SQL only!!
Review: This is a good book for SQL reference not really for PL/SQL..only the last two chapters of the book really talk about PL/SQL and only the very very basic stuff. So if you are good in SQL and want to learn PL/SQL buy Advanced PL/SQL instead.
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