* What the book covers: Oracle PL/SQL For Dummies, 2nd Edition shows novice Oracle programmers how to use PL/SQL, the procedural programming language embedded in Oracle, to develop Oracle applications. Experienced Oracle programmers and project managers will also benefit from the best practices and code and naming standards material in the book.  This book introduces PL/SQL and its relationship to SQL and includes coverage of the following: getting started with PL/SQL (e.g., language fundamentals, program control, exception handling, and packages); Oracle-specific programming topics (e.g., Oracle constructs of interest to PL/SQL developers and code-placement options); advanced PL/SQL (e.g., manipulating strings, manipulating dates, and manipulating numbers). The book also includes a database primer chapter, coverage of best practices (based on actual system-building experience) in sidebars throughout and in a full chapter, and coding and naming standards that can be adopted by organizations. All of the code in the book is provided dummies.com.

* What's new in this edition: Oracle PL/SQL For Dummies, 2nd Edition will be fully revised for both the 11g and 12c versions of the database. The current edition was released in 2006 and was based on Oracle Database versions 9i/10g. Since then there have been a number of important changes related to PL/SQL language. Oracle released two new versions of their database: Oracle 11g (R1 - 2007, R2 - 2009) and the most recent Oracle 12c (2013). Both 11g and 12c contain significant changes and improvements to the PL/SQL language and the new features would require new best practices for coding. Significant data growth is the major factor affecting database development. Row-by-row operations and basic scalar data types are just not enough anymore and the new edition will be revised to reflect more modern practices.