Professional Oracle® Programming Rick Greenwald, Robert Stackowiak, Gary Dodge, David Klein, Ben Shapiro, Christopher G. Chelliah 01_574825 ffirs.qxd 5/13/05 12:52 PM Page iii 01_574825 ffirs.qxd 5/13/05 12:52 PM Page ii Professional Oracle® Programming 01_574825 ffirs.qxd 5/13/05 12:52 PM Page i 01_574825 ffirs.qxd 5/13/05 12:52 PM Page ii Professional Oracle® Programming Rick Greenwald, Robert Stackowiak, Gary Dodge, David Klein, Ben Shapiro, Christopher G. Chelliah 01_574825 ffirs.qxd 5/13/05 12:52 PM Page iii Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing Inc. All rights reserved. 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Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Professional Oracle programming / Rick Greenwald . [et al.]. p. cm. Includes indexes. ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-7482-5 (paper/website) ISBN-10: 0-7645-7482-5 (paper/website) 1. Oracle (Computer file) 2. Relational databases. I. Greenwald, Rick. QA76.9.D3P76646 2005 005.75'85--dc22 2005010511 ISBN 13: 978-076-457482-5 ISBN 10: 0-7645-7482-5 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1B/QS/QW/QV/IN 01_574825 ffirs.qxd 5/13/05 12:52 PM Page iv About the Authors Rick Greenwald has been in the technology industry for over 20 years and is the author of 12 previous books, most of them on Oracle. He has been involved with development and databases for his entire career, including stops at Data General, Cognos, Gupta Technologies, and his current employer, Oracle. Computers and computing are a sideline for Rick — his real job is father to his three wonderful girls, with a primary hobby of music appreciation. Robert Stackowiak is Senior Director of Business Intelligence (BI) in Oracle’s Technology Business Unit. He is recognized worldwide for his expertise in business intelligence and data warehousing in leading the North American BI team at Oracle. His background includes over 20 years in IT related roles at Oracle, IBM, Harris Computer Systems, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers including management of technical teams, software development, sales and sales consulting, systems engineering, and business development. Gary Dodge has been focused on database technology since his first COBOL programming job with IMS DB/DC in 1976. He joined Oracle Corporation in 1987 and has served in various management and technical positions within both the sales and consulting divisions. He has been a frequent speaker on database topics at many local and national information technology conferences. In addition to several magazine articles, he is co-author (with Tim Gorman) of Oracle8 Data Warehousing and Essential Oracle8i Data Warehousing, both published by John Wiley & Sons. David Klein has been in the technology industry for over 20 years with a variety of companies, including Data General, Wang Laboratories, Gupta Technologies, Oracle, and a few consulting services companies. He has had many roles, including management of application development and database design teams, sales and sales consulting, systems engineering and marketing. Recently, he has focused on developing classroom and online training courses. An active wife and two boys and a 200-year-old house take up any free time. Ben Shapiro is the president of ObjectArts Inc., a New York City-based technology consulting company, and has been designing database systems with Oracle since 1997. ObjectArts has worked with many large corporate clients developing XML-based publishing tools and web-based applications. Before ObjectArts, Ben worked with several NYC-based startup companies as a technical lead building content management software. Christopher G. Chelliah joined Oracle as a Consultant in 1995. He brings with him project management, architecture, and development experience from a number of large, multinational sites in the mining, oil and gas, and telecom industries. Chris has been involved with emerging and database technologies for his entire career and is an accomplished software architect with a flair for business development. His expertise has been actively sought by a number of major Oracle clients in Australia, Europe, and the United States. Chris, his wife and two kids are currently in Singapore, where he leads a team defining and executing on innovative E-Government strategies for Oracle’s Public Sector industry in Asia Pacific. 01_574825 ffirs.qxd 5/13/05 12:52 PM Page v 01_574825 ffirs.qxd 5/13/05 12:52 PM Page vi Credits Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Richard Swadley Vice President and Publisher Joseph B. Wikert Executive Editor Robert Elliott Editorial Manager Mary Beth Wakefield Senior Production Editor Geraldine Fahey Development Editor Sharon Nash Production Editor Felicia Robinson Technical Editors Michael Ault, Tim Gorman, Wiley-Dreamtech India Pvt Ltd Text Design & Composition Wiley Composition Services 01_574825 ffirs.qxd 5/13/05 12:52 PM Page vii [...]... and code samples Part I: Oracle Essentials Although the Oracle database is a standards-compliant SQL database, the architecture of the Oracle database and the way it operates include some unique features that are crucial to your effective use of Oracle The first part of Oracle for Professional Developers covers topics that every developer must understand in order to use the Oracle database effectively... working instance of an Oracle database to benefit from this book, the book includes many examples that can be run against your Oracle database All of the examples have been created against Oracle Database 10g, although, with a few noted exceptions, you could run the examples against Oracle9 i Since Oracle is a cross-platform database, the actual operating system that your version of Oracle runs on is unimportant... Oracle Data Dictionary at Execution Time 108 SQL to Generate SQL Dynamic SQL Summary Chapter 7: Installing Oracle Getting Oracle Software Installing Oracle Server Software System Requirements Installing the Software Accessing Your Oracle Database Installing Oracle Client Software Java Drivers Oracle Client Software Installing the Instant Client Which Driver? Summary 108 110 112 113 113 116 116 117... of any programming project But no application will be acceptable to your constituents if it does not run efficiently This final section of the book introduces you to the concepts behind optimization in the Oracle database The chapter includes a discussion of how Oracle determines the optimal access paths to your data, how to see what Oracle has determined, and how to shape the behavior of your Oracle. .. Outlines 695 696 696 699 699 700 702 703 704 704 709 709 710 712 715 715 716 716 716 720 721 722 722 723 723 Summary 723 Index 725 xxv Introduction Introduction Professional Oracle Programming is intended for application developers who use Oracle as their database As such, this book does not devote much space to topics which are primarily of interest to database administrators, such as backup and recovery... Object-Oriented Design Options of Oracle Summary Chapter 5: Oracle Security Security Concepts Confidentiality and Privacy Integrity Why Database-Level Security? Authentication Users and Passwords Smart Cards and Biometric Identification Oracle Syntax Authorization System Privileges Object Privileges Roles Stored Procedures Access Control Views Encryption Virtual Private Database Oracle Label Security Option... 92 92 xiii Contents Chapter 6: The Oracle Data Dictionary 93 What Is the Data Dictionary? Structure of the Oracle Data Dictionary 93 94 USER_TABLES ALL_TABLES DBA_TABLES TAB V_$FIXED_TABLE The Oracle Data Dictionary During Development 95 96 97 98 99 101 Locating and Describing Data Dictionary Views Which Set of Views? Updating the Data Dictionary 101 103 107 The Oracle Data Dictionary at Execution... ❑ A detailed look at how Oracle processes your SQL requests and the impact this can have on your application code ❑ A description of how Oracle handles data access by multiple users, and how this impacts your application design ❑ A primer on effective database design ❑ xxviii A brief introduction to the architecture and components of the Oracle database A discussion on how Oracle administers security... use this for your applications Introduction ❑ An overview of the Oracle data dictionary, which contains information about the objects and operations of a specific Oracle database ❑ A brief tutorial on installing an Oracle database Part II: Data Topics The second section of this book focuses on how to access and manipulate the data in the Oracle database The topics in this section are relevant to all... validate and limit the data added to your Oracle database ❑ A discussion of a variety of other database objects, such as sequences ❑ The use of functions, both built-ins that come with the Oracle database and your own custom defined functions ❑ A discussion of data manipulation as a distributed database environment Part III: Database Programming Languages The Oracle database allows you to include logic . ii Professional Oracle Programming 01_574825 ffirs.qxd 5/13/05 12:52 PM Page i 01_574825 ffirs.qxd 5/13/05 12:52 PM Page ii Professional Oracle Programming. Professional Oracle Programming Rick Greenwald, Robert Stackowiak, Gary Dodge, David