Which Platform or Version?

In general, all of the discussions and examples in this book apply regardless of the machine and/or operating system you are using. In those cases where a feature is in any way version-dependent—for example, if you can use it only in Oracle versions Oracle8i or Oracle9i—we note that in the text.

There are many versions of PL/SQL, and you may even find that you need to use multiple versions in your development work. Chapter 1 describes the versions of PL/SQL still in common use and what you should know about them; see Section 1.4.3.

About the Code

We have provided all of the code included in this book on the book's web page on the O'Reilly web site. Go to:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/oraclep3

and click on the Examples link to go to the book's Web Companion.

As we mentioned earlier, you will also find the entire contents of some of the chapters included in the second edition of this book, but removed or condensed in the third edition. These may be especially helpful to readers who are running older versions of Oracle.

To find a particular example on the site, look for the filename cited in the text. For many examples, you will find filenames in the following form provided as a comment at the beginning of the example shown in the book:

/* File on web: fullname.pkg */

Comments and Questions

We have tested and verified the information in this book and in the source code to the best of our ability, but given the amount of text and the rapid evolution of technology, you may find that features have changed or that we have made mistakes. If so, please notify us by writing to:

O'Reilly & Associates

1005 Gravenstein Highway

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800-998-9938 (in the U.S. or Canada)

707-829-0515 (international or local)

707-829-0104 (FAX)

You can also send messages electronically. To be put on the mailing list or request a catalog, send email to:

info@oreilly.com

To ask technical questions or comment on the book, send email to:

bookquestions@oreilly.com

As mentioned in the previous section, we have a web site for this book where you can find code, updated links, chapters from previous editions of the book, and errata (previously reported errors and corrections are available for public view). You can access this web site at:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/oraclep3

For more information about this book and others, see the O'Reilly web site:

http://www.oreilly.com

Acknowledgments

Since Oracle PL/SQL Programming was first published in 1995, it has had a busy and productive history as the "go to" text on how to use the PL/SQL language. For that, we first of all express our appreciation to all of our readers.

Maintaining Oracle PL/SQL Programming as an accurate, readable, and up-to-date reference to PL/SQL has, from the start, been a big (all right, we admit it—sometimes overwhelming) job; it certainly would not have been possible without the help of many Oracle specialists, friends, and family, and of course the incredible staff at O'Reilly & Associates.

You will find below rather detailed thank yous for those who helped pull together the third edition of Oracle PL/SQL Programming. Following that, you will find an acknowledgment of the many people who were instrumental in the first and second editions. If you want to read the full text of the acknowledgments from these earlier editions, please visit the web site.

First and foremost, we thank Jonathan Gennick, Darryl Hurley, Bryn Llewellyn, and Steve Adams, four outstanding Oracle technologists, for their substantial contributions to this book. Jonathan wrote or substantially updated five chapters, and Darryl contributed the fine chapter on database triggers and contributed many insights on Oracle's internationalization features. Bryn Llewellyn, Oracle's PL/SQL Product Manager, provided crucial information on Oracle9i's new features, answered endless questions about various PL/SQL features with bottomless patience, and reviewed a large number of chapters. Steve gave us excellent and detailed feedback on PL/SQL's runtime architecture.

With such a big book, we needed lots of reviewers, especially because we asked them to test each code snippet and program in the book to keep to an absolute minimum the number of errors that made it into the printed version. We are deeply grateful to the following men and women of the Oracle PL/SQL world, who took time away from the rest of their lives to help make Oracle PL/SQL Programming the best book it could be: Don Bales, Dick Bolz, Dan Clamage, Steve Cosner, Gerard Hartgers, Dwayne King, Larry Elkins, Chandrasekharan Iyer, Vadim Loevski, Giovanni Jaramillo, Rakesh Patel, James Padfield, Peter Linsley, Christopher Racicot, Alex Romankevich, Scott Sowers, JT Thomas, Edward Van Hatten, Simon St. Laurent, Tony Crawford, Geoff Chester, and Andre Vergison.

Once we felt good about the technical content, it was time for the remarkable crew at O'Reilly & Associates, led by our good friend, Deborah Russell, to transform our many chapters and code examples into a book worthy of the O'Reilly imprint. Many thanks to Emily Quill, production manager for the book; Rob Romano, who created the excellent figures; Julie Flanagan, able editorial assistant who helped throughout the project; and the rest of the crew.

And here are the many people we thanked (and continue to be grateful to) for their contributions to the first and second editions of this book:

Jennifer Blair, Eric Camplin, Joe Celko, Avery Cohen, Thomas Dunbar, R. James Forsythe, Mike Gangler, Gabriel Hoffman, Karen Peiser, Pete Schaffer, David Thompson, Cailein Barclay, Sunil Bhargava, Boris Burshteyn, Gray Clossman, Radhakrishna Hari, James Mallory, Nimesh Mehta, Jeff Muller, Dave Posner, Chris Racicot, Peter Vasterd, Zona Walcott, Sohaib Abassi, Per Brondum, Ivan Chong, Bill Dwight, Steve Ehrlich, Bushan Fotedar, Ken Jacobs, Nimish Mehta, Steve Muench, Sri Rajan, Mark Richter, Bill Hinman, Tony Ziemba, John Cordell, Beverly Gibson, Mike Sierra, Gigi Estabrook, Edie Freedman, Donna Woonteiler, Chris Reilley, Michelle Willey, Debby Cunha, Michael Deutsch, John Files, Juliette Muellner, Cory Willing, Seth Maislin, Kismet McDonough Chan, Clairemarie Fisher O'Leary, Eric Givler, Bert Scalzo, John Beresniewicz, Tom White, Steve Hilker, Thomas Kurian, Radhakrishna Hari, Shirish Puranik, Kannan Muthukkaruppan, Jane Ellin, Kimo Carter, Madeleine Newell, Rob Romano, Nancy Priest, Seth Maislin, Fred Polizo, Donald Herkimer, Ervan Darnell, Gary Cernosek, Patrick Pribyl, Bill Watkins, Debra Luik, and Leo Lok.

Finally, Steven thanks his wife, Veva Silva, and two sons, Chris Silva and Eli Feuerstein, for their support and tolerance of so much of his time and attention.

And Bill extends his most heartfelt gratitude to his immediate family, for putting up with writing into the wee hours ("Mommy, Daddy fell asleep at the computer again!") and remaining a constant source of love and good humor.