Mastering Oracle SQL

Few books on the market today go beyond discussing syntax and the barest rudiments of using Oracle SQL. This book changes that, showing you how to creatively leverage the full power of SQL to write queries in an Oracle environment. This book shows you how to:

Leverage Oracle's vast library of built-in SQL functionsQuery time-based data, and write joins involving date and time rangesUse Oracle SQL's hierarchical query features to deal with data best represented in a tree formatUse DECODE and CASE to implement conditional logic in your queriesUse Oracle's new, analytic SQL features to write ranking queries, lag and lead queries, windowing queries, and moreJoin data from two or more tables using the newly supported SQL92 join syntax

In addition, the authors cover the full range of Oracle SQL features that apply to query writing. You'll learn many creative techniques for writing effective, good performing, and accurate queries.

Sanjay Mishra is a certified Oracle database administrator with more than ten years of IT experience. He has been involved in the design, architecture, and implementation of many mission-critical and decision support databases. He has worked extensively in the areas of database architecture, database management, backup / recovery, performance tuning, Oracle Parallel Server, and parallel execution. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, and a Master of Engineering degree in Systems Science and Automation. He is the coauthor of Oracle Parallel Processing and Oracle SQL Loader: The Definitive Guide (both published by O'Reilly & Associates). Presently, he works as a database architect at Dallas Based i2 Technologies, and can be reached at sanjay_mishra@i2.com.

Alan Beaulieu has been designing, building, and implementing custom database applications for over 13 years. He currently runs his own consulting company that specializes in designing Oracle databases and supporting services in the fields of Financial Services and Telecommunications. In building large databases for both OLTP and OLAP environments, Alan utilizes such Oracle features as Parallel Query, Partitioning, and Parallel Server. Alan has a Bachelor of Science degree in Operations Research from the Cornell University School of Engineering. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters and can be reached at albeau_mosql@yahoo.com.