PL/SQL, Oracle's powerful procedural language, has been the cornerstone of Oracle application development for nearly 15 years. Although primarily a tool for developers, PL/SQL has also become an essential tool for database administration, as DBAs take increasing responsibility for site performance and as the lines between developers and DBAs blur.

Until now, there has not been a book focused squarely on the language topics of special concern to DBAs Oracle PL/SQL for DBAs fills the gap. Covering the latest Oracle version, Oracle Database 10g Release 2 and packed with code and usage examples, it contains:

• A quick tour of the PL/SQL language, providing enough basic information about language fundamentals to get DBAs up and running
• Extensive coverage of security topics for DBAs: Encryption (including both traditional methods and Oracle's new Transparent Data Encryption, TDE); Row-Level Security (RLS), Fine-Grained Auditing (FGA); and random value generation
• Methods for DBAs to improve query and database performance with cursors and table functions
• Coverage of Oracle scheduling, which allows jobs such as database monitoring and statistics gathering to be scheduled for regular execution

Using Oracle's built-in packages (DBMS_CRYPTO, DBMS_RLS, DBMS_FGA, DBMS_RANDOM, DBMS_SCHEDULING) as a base, the book describes ways of building on top of these packages to suit particular organizational needs. Authors are Arup Nanda, Oracle Magazine 2003 DBA of the Year, and Steven Feuerstein, the world's foremost PL/SQL expert and coauthor of the classic reference, Oracle PL/SQL Programming.

DBAs who have not yet discovered how helpful PL/SQL can be will find this book a superb introduction to the language and its special database administration features. Even if you have used PL/SQL for years, you'll find the detailed coverage in this book to be an invaluable resource.