Gain hands-on experience with Oracle's PL/SQL programming language, with expert assistance from an IT veteran. PL/SQL is Oracle's procedural language extension to Structured Query Language (SQL). This course will give you the skills you need to write powerful and flexible programs using that language. You'll learn the building blocks and core features of PL/SQL, including expressions, various iterations, and built-in functions. Then, you'll begin building fully functional PL/SQL programs with procedures, packages, debugging routines, database structures, triggers, and cursor processing. By the time you finish this course, you will be able to store PL/SQL programs in a database and execute them.

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Syllabus:

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

Week One

Wednesday - Lesson 01

In our first lesson, you'll master the basics of PL/SQL and discover how you can best get started using this powerful language.You'll also learn the differences between SQL, SQL*Plus, and PL/SQL today.

Friday - Lesson 02

The block is the basic unit of PL/SQL programming. In this lesson, you'll learn and understand the various datatypes available to you when declaring variables. You'll also explore the PL/SQL's block structure, its use, and its impact on the scope of variable declarations.

Week Two

Wednesday - Lesson 03

Today, you're going to learn how to use operators to manipulate variables. You'll build simple expressions that compute two values, as well as complex expressions that consist of function calls, operations using variables, and relational comparisons. You'll also learn about datatype conversions for expressions that contain operands of multiple datatypes.

Friday - Lesson 04

In this lesson, you'll take a closer look at how to create your own functions. The two main reasons for writing functions are the reduction of code and their ease of use. You'll learn how to code PL/SQL functions, how to define parameters in the functions, and how to store them. I'll also show you how to control the execution of PL/SQL blocks using the IF and looping statements. Then, we'll explore the various IF statements and how they operate, and you'll gain experience working with a simple loop.

Week Three

Wednesday - Lesson 05

In today’s lesson, you'll begin to master more methods for changing the order of execution of PL/SQL blocks. We'll cover statement labels, the GOTO statement, and the different kinds of loops. You'll learn how to branch by using the GOTO statement followed by a statement label. Then, we'll discuss why the statement label must appear in the same block and within the same scope as the GOTO statement. Next, we'll look at control structures. You'll learn about the different kinds of loops and how they operate. Finally, you'll discover techniques for exiting loops and how to simulate a REPEAT...UNTIL loop.

Friday - Lesson 06

We'll look at a number of Oracle’s built-in functions in this lesson, including string functions, number functions, date functions, and conversion functions.

Week Four

Wednesday - Lesson 07

In this lesson, we'll focus on procedures and packages and how they allow you to organize your PL/SQL code into logical groups for uncomplicated maintenance and implementation.

Friday - Lesson 08

Errors that occur from hardware or network failures, application logic errors, data integrity errors, and other sources are called exceptions. In this lesson, I'll introduce you to the concepts behind PL/SQL exception handling. I'll explain the different types of exceptions and show you how to identify and handle errors in your code.

Week Five

Wednesday - Lesson 09

The Structured Query Language (SQL) is the industry standard for accessing data from relational databases. In this lesson, we'll address the connection to the underlying Oracle database through SQL (Structured Query Language). We'll cover the usage of SQL's Data Manipulation Language (DML) commands within a PL/SQL block. Then you'll learn how to define DML transactions that insert, update, delete, and query the information.

Friday - Lesson 10

PL/SQL cursors provide a method for selecting multiple rows of data from the database and processing each row individually. You can use cursors for simple procedures and complex processing. In this lesson, I'll introduce you to cursors and how they may be used.

Week Six

Wednesday - Lesson 11

In this lesson, you'll learn about triggers and experiment with implementing a few different types of functionality. We'll discuss advanced cursor concepts, which include the SELECT...FOR UPDATE statement, the WHERE CURRENT OF clause, and subqueries in cursors. Finally, you'll learn techniques to managing PL/SQL code.

Friday - Lesson 12

Although some may never admit to it, everyone makes mistakes, so you will inevitably make some coding errors. These errors are usually comprised of syntax and logic errors. In our final lesson, I'll demonstrate how to find these bugs and then how to reduce the number of coding mistakes you may encounter.

This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Cindy Delia.

Cindy Delia is a Systems Analyst and a certified instructor. She has been working in information technology for more than 18 years and has been a technical trainer for over 6 years. As a Systems Analyst, she specializes in database management systems and develops PC applications. She has taught computer courses at the community college level and also performs corporate training. Cindy has also written technical manuals for WordPerfect.

Requirements:

Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader). completion of Cindy Delia's Introduction to Oracle course (or equivalent experience), and any type of computer with an installed copy of Oracle's Database Software (versions 8, 9 or 10 are acceptable). The Database software is available for downloading from Oracle's website (www.oracle.com). Download the Oracle Database 10g Release 2 Standard Edition, Standard Edition One, and Enterprise Edition that supports your operating system. This course provides post-installation instruction on Oracle. Installation support will not be provided in the course. Installation support is provided from Oracle's website.

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