1. Chapter 1 Introduction to SQL

   1. What Is SQL?

   2. A Brief History of SQL

   3. A Simple Database

   4. DML Statements

2. Chapter 2 The WHERE Clause

   1. Life Without WHERE

   2. WHERE to the Rescue

   3. WHERE Clause Evaluation

   4. Conditions and Expressions

   5. WHERE to Go from Here

3. Chapter 3 Joins

   1. Inner Joins

   2. Outer Joins

   3. Self Joins

   4. Joins and Subqueries

   5. DML Statements on a Join View

   6. ANSI-Standard Join Syntax in Oracle9i

4. Chapter 4 Group Operations

   1. Aggregate Functions

   2. The GROUP BY Clause

   3. The HAVING Clause

5. Chapter 5 Subqueries

   1. What Is a Subquery?

   2. Noncorrelated Subqueries

   3. Correlated Subqueries

   4. Inline Views

   5. Subquery Case Study: The Top N Performers

6. Chapter 6 Handling Temporal Data

   1. Internal DATE Storage Format

   2. Getting Dates In and Out of a Database

   3. Date Manipulation

   4. Oracle9i New DATETIME Features

   5. INTERVAL Literals

7. Chapter 7 Set Operations

   1. Set Operators

   2. Using Set Operations to Compare Two Tables

   3. Using NULLs in Compound Queries

   4. Rules and Restrictions on Set Operations

8. Chapter 8 Hierarchical Queries

   1. Representing Hierarchical Information

   2. Simple Hierarchy Operations

   3. Oracle SQL Extensions

   4. Complex Hierarchy Operations

   5. Restrictions on Hierarchical Queries

9. Chapter 9 DECODE and CASE

   1. DECODE, NVL, and NVL2

   2. The Case for CASE

   3. DECODE and CASE Examples

10. Chapter 10 Partitions, Objects, and Collections

    1. Table Partitioning

    2. Objects and Collections

11. Chapter 11 PL/SQL

    1. What Is PL/SQL?

    2. Procedures, Functions, and Packages

    3. Calling Stored Functions from Queries

    4. Restrictions on Calling PL/SQL from SQL

    5. Stored Functions in DML Statements

    6. The SQL Inside Your PL/SQL

12. Chapter 12 Advanced Group Operations

    1. ROLLUP

    2. CUBE

    3. The GROUPING Function

    4. GROUPING SETS

    5. Oracle9i Grouping Features

    6. The GROUPING_ID and GROUP_ID Functions

13. Chapter 13 Advanced Analytic SQL

    1. Analytic SQL Overview

    2. Ranking Functions

    3. Windowing Functions

    4. Reporting Functions

    5. Summary

14. Chapter 14 SQL Best Practices

    1. Know When to Use Specific Constructs

    2. Avoid Unnecessary Parsing

    3. Consider Literal SQL for Decision Support Systems

1. Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The insect on the cover of Mastering Oracle SQL is a lantern fly. The lantern fly is mostly tropical, with a wingspan of up to six inches. The lantern fly's elongated head is an evolutionary adaptation called automimicry, in which parts of the body are disguised or artifically shifted to other areas to confuse predators: the lantern fly's head looks like a tail, and its tail looks like a head. On the rear it has artificial eyes and antennae. Colleen Gorman was the production editor and copyeditor for Mastering Oracle SQL. Sheryl Avruch and Ann Schirmer provided quality control. Tom Dinse wrote the index.

Ellie Volckhausen and Emma Colby designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from Johnson's Natural History. Emma Colby produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.1 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font.

David Futato designed the interior layout. Neil Walls converted the files from Microsoft Word to FrameMaker 5.5.6 using tools written in Perl by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, and Neil Walls, as well as tools written by Mike Sierra. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand 9 and Adobe Photoshop 6. The tip and warning icons were drawn by Christopher Bing. This colophon was written by Colleen Gorman.