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Teach yourself Oracle8 in 21 day

Sams Publishing <BR>
201 W. 103rd Street <BR>
Indianapolis, IN 46290
<H1><FONT COLOR="#000077">Introduction</FONT></H1>
<P>I have worked with Oracle for many years. Every time a new version is released
or a new problem crops up, I am rejuvenated; I become excited about working with
Oracle again. I want to share this enthusiasm with you, and I hope that after you
become familiar with Oracle, more and more aspects of the Oracle RDBMS will interest
you. The most important thing is that you enjoy what you are doing; I hope that you
enjoy working with Oracle as much as I do.</P>
<P>The Oracle RDBMS is an enormous environment with unlimited potential. When you
start working with Oracle, you might find it overwhelming. Don't give up; you will
see how the different components work together as you learn about the Oracle RDBMS.
Rarely do I undertake a project without learning something new about Oracle.
<H3><FONT COLOR="#000077">Who Should Read This Book?</FONT></H3>
<P>This book is designed for inexperienced Oracle users. Experienced Oracle DBAs
will likely find this book too elementary. Most of the lessons are designed to step
the reader through specific administrative and user tasks.
<H3><FONT COLOR="#000077">Required Software</FONT></H3>
<P>To be able to work through the examples in this book, you must have the following
software:

<UL>
	<LI>Oracle 8.0.3 or later
	<P>
	<LI>Oracle Enterprise Manager
	<P>
	<LI>Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or other OS
</UL>

<P>Although many of the examples and exercises in this book are geared toward Microsoft
Windows NT, you need not run NT. If your system runs UNIX, you will be fine.
<H3><FONT COLOR="#000077">How to Use This Book</FONT></H3>
<P>The best way to use this book is to read each lesson, then practice the techniques
and tasks outlined in that lesson. Each lesson covers a single topic, so some lessons
might be longer than others. If you complete one lesson per day, you can easily complete
the full course in three weeks.</P>
<P>At the end of each lesson, you'll find a series of questions and answers. These
questions are designed to point out some of the key concepts that were covered in
the lesson. Following the Q&amp;A section, you'll find a series of quiz questions
that focus on techniques and tasks covered in the lesson. Each lesson also includes
a series of exercises that are intended to familiarize you with some of the key tasks
covered in that lesson.
<H3><FONT COLOR="#000077">Conventions Used in This Book</FONT></H3>
<P><FONT COLOR="#000077"><B>New Term:</B></FONT><B> </B>New terms appear in italic,
and are accompanied by a new term icon.


<BLOCKQUOTE>
	<P>
<HR>
<FONT COLOR="#000077"><B>NOTE:</B></FONT><B> </B>Notes explain interesting or important
	points that can help you understand concepts and techniques. 
<HR>
</P>
	<P>
<HR>
<FONT COLOR="#000077"><B>TIP:</B></FONT><B> </B>Tips are pieces of information that
	help you in real-world situations. Tips often provide shortcuts or information to
	make a task easier or faster. 
<HR>
</P>
	<P>
<HR>
<FONT COLOR="#000077"><B>WARNING:</B></FONT><B> </B>Warnings provide information
	about detrimental performance issues or dangerous errors. Pay careful attention to
	warnings. 
<HR>


</BLOCKQUOTE>

<H4><FONT COLOR="#000077">Working with Code and Code Conventions</FONT></H4>
<P><B>INPUT: </B>The input icon indicates code that you type.</P>

<P><B>OUTPUT:</B>The output icon indicates the result of running a piece of code.</P>

<P>All code in the listings appears in <TT>monospace</TT>. Many code-related terms
within the text also appear in <TT>monospace</TT>. Placeholders in code or in text
appear in italic monospace.</P>

<P>When a line of code is too long to fit on one line of this book, it is broken
at a convenient place and continued to the next line. A code continuation character
<IMG SRC="../buttonart/ccc.gif" WIDTH="14" HEIGHT="9" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" BOTTOM">
precedes the continuation of a line of code. (You should type a line of code that
has this character as one long line without breaking it.)</P>

<P><B>ANALYSIS: </B>Paragraphs that begin with the analysis icon explain the preceding
code example.</P>

<P>The syntax icon identifies syntax statements.</P>

<P>Throughout this book there will be references to SQL statements and Oracle administration
statements. These will be distinguished in the following manner:

<UL>
	<LI>Any Oracle or SQL keyword that must be typed exactly will be displayed in uppercase
	letters, as in <TT>SELECT</TT>. This syntax does not necessarily require uppercase
	characters in its execution, but will be displayed that way for consistency.
	<P>
	<LI>Statements that can be or need to be altered for your own particular configuration
	are indicated by italics, as in <TT>SELECT * FROM </TT>table_name. This would indicate
	that table_name should be substituted with your own table's name.
	<P>
	<LI>The use of braces indicates a choice of several optional variables. An example
	of this would be the following SQL statement: <TT>SELECT</TT> [<TT>USER_NAME</TT>
	or <TT>USER_ID</TT>] <TT>FROM </TT>table_name<TT>;</TT>. This would indicate that
	the keywords <TT>USER_NAME</TT> or <TT>USER_ID</TT> must be used in that SQL query.
	<P>
	<LI>The use of brackets indicates a choice of various optional parameters. In this
	case, the parameter may be used or omitted as necessary. An example of this is the
	SQL statement <TT>SELECT USER_NAME, GROUP_NAME FROM </TT>table_name<TT> [ORDER BY
	GROUP_NAME];</TT>.
</UL>

<H3><FONT COLOR="#000077">Author's Note</FONT></H3>
<P>Most of this book was written before the production version of Oracle8 was available.
I have tried to change any example or explanation of a task that has changed since
Oracle8 beta 2. I believe I have made all of these corrections, but if you see a
figure or an explanation of a task that is not quite correct, it is because the original
section was based on that beta release.</P>
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