Oracle SQL - David C. Kreines

SQL (Structured Query Language) is the heart of a relational database
management system. It's the language used to query the database, to
create new tables in the database, to update and delete database fields,
and to set privileges in the database. Oracle SQL: The Essential
Reference is for everyone who needs to access an Oracle database
using SQL--developers, DBAs, designers, and managers.SQL is based on research dating back to the late 1960s, but its first
commercial release was in the RDBMS announced by the fledgling Oracle
Corporation in 1979. Since that time, every other database vendor has
adopted SQL, and ANSI and the ISO have made it a standard. Although
vendors diverge in their extensions to SQL, the core language is
standard across vendor boundaries.Despite SQL's long history and relative simplicity, few developers and
database administrators are truly masters of SQL. The constant stream of
vendor enhancements, the hard-won experience in tuning SQL for best
performance, and the requirements of particular operational environments
mean that there is always more to learn about SQL.Oracle SQL: The Essential Reference delivers all the information
needed to keep ahead of the learning curve on standard SQL and Oracle's
extensions to it. This single, concise reference volume will hold its
own against a stack of Oracle manuals and even yield insights and
examples not available in those manuals.There are chapters on basic SQL elements (naming requirements, column
types, pseudo-types, data conversion rules, operators); Data Definition
Language (DDL) and Data Manipulation Language (DML); common language
elements (constraints, storage clause, predicates); SQL functions;
PL/SQL (including procedures, functions, and packages); SQL*Plus, and
Oracle SQL optimization and tuning. The book covers Oracle 8i, release
8.1.6.