{"product_id":"oracle-pl-sql-built-ins-pocket-reference-book-steven-feuerstein-9781565924567","title":"Oracle PL\/ SQL Built-ins Pocket Reference","description":"This pocket reference provides quick-reference information that will help you use Oracle Corporation's extensive set of built-in functions and packages, including those new to Oracle8. Oracle's PL\/SQL language is a programming language providing procedural extensions to the SQL relational database language and to an ever-growing number of Oracle development tools. Among the most useful constructs in the PL\/SQL language are the built-in functions and packages. Built-in functions are constructs that operate on certain types of data (e.g., numeric, character) to return a result. By using functions, you can minimize the coding you need to do in your programs. Functions are described in detail in Steven Feuerstein's Oracle PL\/SQL Programming; this comprehensive guide to building applications with PL\/SQL has become the bible for PL\/SQL developers who have raved about its completeness, readability, and practicality. Built-in functions fall into several major categories: Character functions: Operate on character data.\nExamples include CONCAT (concatenates two strings into one), LENGTH (returns the length of a string), and REPLACE (replaces a character sequence in a string with a different set of characters). Date functions: Operate on dates and supplement the DATE datatype. Examples include SYSDATE (returns the current date and time in the Oracle Server) and LAST_DAY (returns the last day in the month of the specified date). Numeric functions: Operate on numeric data. Examples include CEIL (returns the smallest integer greater than or equal to the specified number) and POWER (returns a number raised to a particular power). LOB functions: Operate on large object data. Examples include EMPTY_BLOB (returns an empty locator of the binary large object type) and EMPTY_CLOB (returns an empty locator of the character large object type). Conversion functions: Perform explicit conversions of different types of data. Examples include TO_CHAR (converts a number or date to a string) and TO_NUMBER (converts a string to a number). Miscellaneous functions. Examples include GREATEST (returns the greatest of the specified list of values) and UID (returns the user ID of the current Oracle session).\nBuilt-in packages (collections of PL\/SQL objects, such as functions, procedures, and data structures) greatly expand the scope of the PL\/SQL language. These packages are described in detail in Feuerstein's and Beresniewicz's book, Oracle Built-in Packages. Built-in packages are built by Oracle Corporation and stored directly in the Oracle database. The functionality of the built-ins is available from any programming environment that can call PL\/SQL stored procedures, including Visual Basic, Oracle Developer\/2000, Oracle Application Server (for Web-based development), and, of course, the Oracle database itself. Built-in packages extend the capabilities and power of PL\/SQL in many significant ways. For example: DBMS_SQL executes dynamically constructed SQL statements and PL\/SQL blocks of code. DBMS_PIPE communicates between different Oracle sessions through a pipe in the RDBMS shared memory. DBMS_JOB submits and manages regularly scheduled jobs for execution inside the database. DBMS_LOB accesses and manipulates Oracle8's large objects (LOBs) from within PL\/SQL programs. The book shows how to call all of the commonly used built-in functions and packages.\nFor packages, it also shows the RESTRICT REFERENCES pragmas (needed if you call packages from a SQL statement), as well as the exceptions, constants, and data structures defined in the packages.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49615289975057,"sku":"GOR007688739","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50380955156753,"sku":"CIN1565924568VG","price":3.58,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1565924568.jpg?v=1751118278","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/oracle-pl-sql-built-ins-pocket-reference-book-steven-feuerstein-9781565924567","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}