MySQL is the most popular SQL database in the open source community and is used almost universally by web sites running on open source systems. As powerful and flexible as it is lightweight and efficient, MySQL packs a large feature set into a very small and fast engine that now runs on more than 500,000 servers. This renowned online manual that has supported MySQL administrators and database developers for years is now available in paperback format. This book is an exact reproduction of the MySQL Reference Manual from the MySQL development team's Web site, minus some non-technical appendices. This version covers MySQL 4.0. Many sophisticated topics appear in this comprehensive manual, ranging from the hitches you may run into when first installing MySQL to internals that will help you tune your queries. MySQL Reference Manual contains all the comprehensive reference material one would expect for building the product, running administrative utilities, and using various API as well as MySQL's rich version of SQL. In addition, you can turn a page and find such unexpected riches as: A thorough comparison of MySQL with SQL standards and other databases A discussion of privileges and suggested uses of privileges to enhance security Directions for replicating a database and for running several MySQL servers on a single system Directions for initializing a database from a flat file Guidelines for estimating the performance of different queries A far-reaching discussion of optimization, with reference to the implementation of MySQL Investigations of the differences between data types and the pros and cons of each type of number, string, or timestamp An extended inquiry into the effects of using delayed inserts A candid explanation of why various errors occur and how to recover from them Tips for weighted, full-text searches Detailed descriptions of the features, strengths, and weaknesses of available table formats A guide to adding new functions to MySQL No serious MySQL user should be without this book.

More Java developers today want to work with XML, the technology that enables data to be transported intact over the Internet, but they don't have time to become XML experts. If this describes you, then you'll appreciate data binding, the new way of converting XML documents into Java objects, so those documents can be worked on and manipulated like any other Java object, then converted back to XML This new title provides an in-depth technical look at XML Data Binding. The book offers complete documentation of all features in both the Sun Microsystems JAXB API and popular open source alternative implementations (Enhydra Zeus, Exolabs Castor and Quick). It also gets into significant detail about when data binding is appropriate to use, and provides numerous practical examples of using data binding in applications. As Author Brett McLaughlin says "Too many books are written about technologies by people who barely understand them. I've already written two data binding implementations (Zeus, and a previous one for IBM DeveloperWorks.) I've actually used data binding for longer than the official specification has been in existence, and I've really been able to dig into what it takes to code an effective data biding implementation, as well as use one correctly. This book is part user guide, part under-the-hood manual, and part use-case. It's a powerful combination, and one I think people need."

"If we are to solve many of the problems facing us-in the cities, in the wild areas of the earth, in the atmosphere, and the oceans-we shall need the help of skilled users of GIS technology. If readers can master what is in this volume, they will be well started on this enterprise." -From the Foreword by Jack Dangermond President of ESRI Praise for previous editions: "One of only a small number of texts devoted to the technology of GIS that are truly introductory in nature. . . . Very readable and of moderate length. Those who are real novices to GIS will find this one attractive." -Computers and Geosciences "Well-rendered and very clear line drawings . . . well written, with a well-balanced blend of technical/theoretical concepts and more applied facts of GIS." -Professional Geographer Geographic Information Systems provides a practical, theory-driven overview of GIS that is supported with clear coverage of basic techniques. This treatment enables readers to understand the broad aspects of GIS without focusing on a specific software or discipline, such as engineering or geography. New features of this Third Edition include: up-to-date information on standardization efforts aimed at facilitating the exchange of ideas and data; technical content that is up to date with current hardware, software, database design, and analytical techniques; and comprehensive cost/benefit guidelines for choosing and evaluating a GIS, including coverage of organizational and technical issues. Complete with extensive references and links to online resources, Geographic Information Systems, Third Edition, is an exceptional resource for students of GIS, planning, land use, natural resources, civil and environmental engineering, real estate, and wildlife biology.

Web services enable the new generation of Internet-based applications. These services support application-to-application Internet communication--that is, applications at different network locations can be integrated to function as if they were part of a single, large software system. Examples of applications made possible by Web services include automated business transactions and direct (nonbrowser) desktop and handheld device access to reservations, stock trading, and order-tracking systems. Several key standards have emerged that together form the foundation for Web services: XML (Extensible Markup Language), WSDL (Web Services Definition Language), SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), and UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration). In addition, ebXML (Electronic Business XML) has been specified to facilitate automated business process integration among trading partners. This book introduces the main ideas and concepts behind core and extended Web services' technologies and provides developers with a primer for each of the major technologies that have emerged in this space. In addition, summarizes the major architectural approaches to Web services, examines the role of Web services within the .NET and J2EE communities, and provides information about major product offerings from BEA, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, IONA, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and others. Understanding Web Services Key topics include: XML facilities for structuring and serializing data How WSDL maps services onto communication protocols and transports WSDL support for RPC-oriented and document-oriented interactions SOAP's required and optional elements Message processing and the role of intermediaries in SOAP UDDI data formats and APIs How ebXML offers an alternative to Web services that supports reliable messaging, security, and trading-partner negotiations With , you will be well informed and well positioned to participate in this vast, emerging marketplace. Understanding Web Services

Today MQSeries offers the programmer more choices than ever in which to write new MQSeries applications, from the most traditional Message Queue Interface API all the way through to the popular and highly portable JMS interface. Because of the many options available, it can sometimes be difficult for an application programmer new to MQSeries to easily understand the differences and benefits of each, or appreciate the implications of using one programming approach versus another. This redbook will help you install, tailor and configure specialist tools such as JMS admin, and will help you to design/create MQSeries applications. It gives a broad and general understanding of the currently available MQSeries APIs. We do this first by describing some of the more common examples and coding patterns, and then explaining each one in turn using the different APIs MQSeries supports to show the merits of each particular programming choice. This redbook positions the different MQSeries programming choices against each other in such a way as to help the application writer to make a clearer and more informed judgment as to which is the most suitable programming method for a particular situation.

Single most authoritative guide from the inventor of the technique. Presents unique modeling techniques for e-commerce, and shows strategies for optimizing performance. Companion Web site provides updates on dimensional modeling techniques, links related to sites, and source code where appropriate.

MySQL is a popular and robust open source database product that supports key subsets of SQL on both Linux and Unix systems. MySQL is free for nonprofit use and costs a small amount for commercial use. Unlike commercial databases, MySQL is affordable and easy to use. This book includes introductions to SQL and to relational database theory. If you plan to use MySQL to build web sites or other Linux or Unix applications, this book teaches you to do that, and it will remain useful as a reference once you understand the basics. Ample tutorial material and examples are included throughout. This book has all you need to take full advantage of this powerful database management system. It takes you through the whole process from installation and configuration to programming interfaces and database administration. This second edition has a greatly enhanced administration chapter that includes information on administrative tools, server configuration, server startup and shutdown, log file management, database backup and restore, and database administration and repair. In addition, a new chapter on security describes data, server, and client-server security, while a chapter on extending MySQL provides an overview of MySQL internals and describes the use of MySQL user-defined functions. If you know C/C++, Java, Perl, PHP, or Python, you can write programs to interact with your MySQL database. In addition, you can embed queries and updates directly in an HTML file so that a web page becomes its own interface to the database. Managing and Using MySQL includes chapters on the programming language interfaces, and it also includes a complete reference section with specific function calls for each language. Also included in the reference section are references to the SQL language, and details of the MySQL system variables, programs, and utilities. New to the second edition is a reference to the internal MySQL tables, which will be of particular interest to those who want to work extensively with MySQL security.

If you write programs to run against an Oracle database, you spend a lot of time and mental energy writing queries to return the data your programs need. Knowledge of SQL, and particularly of Oracle's implementation of SQL, is the key to writing good queries in a timely manner. In this book, the authors share their knowledge of Oracle SQL, and show you many creative techniques that you can use to advantage in your own applications. This book shows you how to: Leverage Oracle's vast library of built-in SQL functions Query time-based data, and write joins involving date and time ranges Use Oracle SQL's hierarchical query features to deal with data best represented in a tree format Use DECODE and CASE to implement conditional logic in your queries Use Oracle's new, analytic SQL features to write ranking queries, lag and lead queries, windowing queries, and more Join data from two or more tables using the newly supported SQL92 join syntax In addition, you'll see how SQL can best be integrated with PL/SQL. You'll also learn various best practices to help you write SQL queries that perform efficiently. Precious few books on the market today go beyond discussing syntax and the barest rudiments of using Oracle SQL. This book changes that, showing you how to creatively leverage the full power of SQL to write queries in an Oracle environment.

The state-of-the-art publication in model-based process control—by leading experts in the field. In Techniques of Model-Based Control, two leading experts bring together powerful advances in model-based control for chemical-process engineering. Coleman Brosilow and Babu Joseph focus on practical approaches designed to solve real-world problems, and they offer extensive examples and exercises. Coverage includes: The nature of the process-control problem and how model-based solutions help to solve it Continuous time modeling: time domain, Laplace domain, and FOPDT models Feedforward, cascade, override, and single-variable inferential control approaches One and two degree of freedom Internal Model Control Model State Feedback and PI/PID Implementations of IMC Tuning and synthesis of 1DF and 2DF IMC for process uncertainty Estimation and inferential control using multiple secondary measurements Basic and advanced techniques of model identification and model-predictive control The appendices review the basics of Laplace transforms, feedback control, frequency response analysis, probability, random variables, and linear least-square regression. From start to finish, Techniques of Model-Based Control offers the real-world insight that professionals need to identify and implement the best control strategies for virtually any process.

The first Internet revolution was all about delivering information to people. We are now in the second revolution, which focuses on delivering information to systems. XML is the tool that makes this new revolution a reality, and Web services are the methods by which businesses will drive system-to-system communication. JSP(TM) and XML takes you beyond the basics, giving you practical advice and in-depth coverage. In the book, you'll learn the technologies and techniques needed to create your own Web services for use in JSP applications. Written by programmers for programmers, the book will help you successfully utilize these exciting technologies with minimal hassle and maximum speed. In you will: JSP™ and XML Learn how to use XML, XSLT, and XPath in your JSP site Program SAX to speed up your XML document processing Understand DOM to learn the W3C standard method of working with XML Coordinate cross-browser client-side XML utilization Understand the Web services alphabet Learn how to leverage Web services to simplify access to your data Learn how SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI integrate into Web Services Use JDOM and dom4J to easily work with XML files Design a balanced JSP site using XML Expand your knowledge of JSP to add new functionality to your Web pages Learn how to practically apply Servlet filters and listeners to a Web site Build dynamic JSP pages that can self- modify, making sites easier to maintain Understand how the new JSP XML syntax works Review the basics of database access within JSP Learn JSP tag library design and how tag libraries simplify using XML and Web Services

This unique cookbook contains a wealth of solutions to problems that SQL programmers face all the time. The recipes inside range from how to perform simple tasks, like importing external data, to ways of handling issues that are more complicated, like set algebra. Authors Ales Spetic and Jonathan Gennick, two authorities with extensive database and SQL programming experience, include a discussion with each recipe to explain the logic and concepts underlying the solution.SQL (Structured Query Language) is the closest thing to a standard query language that currently exists, and Transact-SQL -- a full-featured programming language that dramatically extends the power of SQL -- is the procedural language of choice for both Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase SQL Server systems. The Transact-SQL Cookbook is designed so you can use the recipes directly, as a source of ideas, or as a way to learn a little more about SQL and what you can do with it. Topics covered include: With an abundance of recipes to help you get your job done more efficiently, the Audit logging. In addition to recipes for implementing an audit log, this chapter also includes recipes for: improving performance where large log tables are involved; supporting multiple-languages; and simulating server push. Hierarchies. Recipes show you how to manipulate hierarchical data using Transact-SQL. Importing data. This chapter introduces concepts like normalization and recipes useful for working with imported data tables. Sets. Recipes demonstrate different operations, such as how to find common elements, summarize the data in a set, and find the element in a set that represents an extreme. Statistics. This chapter?s recipes show you how to effectively use SQL for common statistical operations from means and standard deviations to weighted moving averages. Temporal data. Recipes demonstrate how to construct queries against time-based data. Data Structures. This chapter shows how to manipulate data structures like stacks, queues, matrices, and arrays. Transact-SQL Cookbook is sure to become an essential part of your library.

What do eBay, Amazon.com and CNN.com have in common? They're all applications that integrate large databases with the Web. The popularity (and power) of these applications stems from their accessibility and usability: thousands of users can access the same data at the same time without theneed to install any additional software on their computers. Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL offers web developers a mixture of theoretical and practical information on creating web database applications. Using PHP, and MySQL, two open source technologies that are often combined to develop web applications, the book offers detailed information on designing relational databases and on web application architecture, both of which will be useful to readers who have never dealt with these issues before. The book also introduces Hugh and Dave's Online Wines, a complete (but fictional) online retail site that allows users to browse, search a database, add items to a shopping cart, manage their membership, and purchase wines. Using this site as an example, the book shows you how to implement searching and browsing, store user data, validate user input, manage transactions, and maintain security. If you want to build small to medium-scale web database applications that can run on modest hardware and process more than a million hits a day from users, this book will show you how.

Restructuring information in an XML document so that it works in other formats used to be a time-consuming ordeal involving lots of blood, sweat, and tears. Now XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) makes the process nearly instantaneous. Just provide an example of the kind of information you'd like to see, and XSLT does the rest. With XSLT you can effortlessly transform XML documents into virtually any kind of output, including other XML documents and HTML pages. But mastering XSLT can be tricky, especially if you've never worked with XML or HTML; and most books on the subject are written for people who have. Here comes XSLT For Dummies to the rescue! XSLT For Dummies is your ticket to quickly mastering XSLT—no matter what your prior programming experience. Writing in easygoing, plain English, XML pro Richard Wagner provides expert advice, step-by-step guidance, and tons of crystal-clear examples to help you harness the power of XSLT to transform documen ts. In no time you'll: Understand how XSLT works with XSL and XPath Experiment with templates, stylesheets, and expressions Perform HTML transformations Master XPath data types and functions Combine XSLT stylesheets Explore cool XSLT programming tricks XSLT For Dummies works from the ground up, starting with a practical introduction of the "X-Team"—XML, XSL, XSLT, and X-Path—and instructions on how to write a XSLT stylesheet. From there it quickly moves onward and upward through the whole range of important XSLT topics, including: Transforming with stylesheets Understanding and using template rules Using XPath to locate nodes in XML documents Combining XSLT stylesheets and adding processing instructions Debugging XSLT transformations Ten XSLT processors available online It doesn't matter whether you're a babe in the woods who can't tell a "tag" from an element, or you're an old pro at creating XML documents, XSLT For Dummies offers you a fun, easy way to explore and take full advantage of Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations.

Absolute Beginner's Guide to Databases brings the elements of a database together using easy to understand language, perfect for the true beginner. It not only gives specific hands on practice, but also provides an overview of designing, maintaining and using a database. This book covers what databases are used for, why databases are important, why the design of the database is important, database normalization, keys to solid database design, differences in types of databases, and indexes--what they are, how we use them, and why they are important.

Access Cookbook contains a comprehensive collection of problems, solutions,and practical examples for the Access power user or programmer who is running up against some of the apparent limits of the Access user interface or of Access application development. The diverse problems and solutions presented here are of interest to Access power users and programmers at all levels, from the relatively inexperienced to the most sophisticated. Each of the book?s 14 chapters focuses on a particular topic area related to the Access environment or Access programming. Within each chapter, individual items follow a standardized format. The authors first pose the problem, and then present its solution. Finally, a discussion follows, which consists of extended analysis of the solution, an insightful examination of how Access works, or interesting programming techniques that are used in the solution but that you can also apply elsewhere. The kinds of problems posed and solved in the book include the following: Specifying query criteria at runtime, rather than at design time Restricting the user to a single row of a form Preventing a report from printing if it has no records Making slow forms run faster Insuring that user interface objects present a uniform, consistent appearance Controlling a printer's paper source programmatically Referencing data from multiple SQL Server databases in a single Access Data Project page Using contact information from an Access database when sending email using Outlook The accompanying CD-ROM includes Access databases that contain the solutions for all problems presented in the text.

As a developer new to Web Services, how do you make sense of thisemerging framework so you can start writing your own servicestoday? This concise book gives programmers both a concreteintroduction and a handy reference to XML web services, first byexplaining the foundations of this new breed of distributedservices, and then by demonstrating quick ways to create serviceswith open-source Java tools. Web Services make it possible fordiverse applications to discover each other and exchange dataseamlessly via the Internet. For instance, programs written in Javaand running on Solaris can find and call code written in C# thatrun on Windows XP, or programs written in Perl that run on Linux,without any concern about the details of how that service isimplemented. A common set of Web Services is at the core ofMicrosoft's new .NET strategy, Sun Microsystems's Sun One Platform,and the W3C's XML Protocol Activity Group. In this book, authorEthan Cerami explores four key emerging technologies: XML Remote Procedure Calls (XML-RPC) SOAP - The foundation for most commercial WebServices development Universal Discovery, Description and Integration(UDDI) Web Services Description Language (WSDL) For each of these topics, Web Services Essentials provides aquick overview, Java tutorials with sample code, samples of the XMLdocuments underlying the service, and explanations offreely-available Java APIs. Cerami also includes a guide to thecurrent state of Web Services, pointers to open-source tools and acomprehensive glossary of terms. If you want to break through theWeb Services hype and find useful information on these evolvingtechnologies, look no further than Web Services Essentials.

BizTalk Unleashed covers a wide range of implementation and development tools, techniques, and technologies for use with BizTalk Server. You will learn everything from the basic foundation and history of XML to how to create, transform, process, and configure BizTalk server specifications, maps, and BizTalk Messaging. Instead of just skimming the surface of what BizTalk Server has to offer, this book provides an overarching view of how BizTalk Server impacts the traditionally difficult application integration tasks developers face. Detailed information and example code is given on the new BizTalk 2002 features as well as the correlation of BizTalk Messaging and Orchestration services, the integration of .NET, and the RosettaNet and HIPPA BizTalk Server accelerators.

Privacy Defended: Protecting Yourself Online is a comprehensive book that melds detailed, how-to information on PC hardware and operating system security within the context of protecting one's privacy in a digital world. It is designed for individuals who are serious about their privacy and who also want an accessible, one-stop source of practical information. The book offers clear discussion of privacy issues as they affect everyday users of digital devices, covering all current and near-future devices and technologies that pose privacy risks to users.

The book covers XSLT and Xpath (as a part of XSLT), as these topics have everything to do with processing XML. It will also cover XML from an XSLT processing and design point of view. Other XML technologies will not be discussed as superset of XSLT, most notably XSL. XSL Formatting Objects alone is enough material for an entire book. Apart from that, XSLT and Xpath form the processing/programming section of the entire XSL specification. This book presents an overview of XSLT and guides readers through transforming their first XML data. In this book you will also learn: Selecting Data-Stylesheets and Xpath Basics; Inserting text and elements in output; Copying elements from the source and inserting text; Conditional processing basics and expressions; Modularizing stylesheets; Understanding, creating, and using templates; Controlling output, as well as creating more advanced output; Using multi-file stylesheets, variables, and parameters; Working with numbers, strings, multiple XML sources, and namespaces; Selecting data based upon keys; Recursion; Creating computational stylesheets; Working with parses; Designing XML and XSLT applications; Extending XSLT.

Special Edition Using XSLT starts with an overview explaining how XSLT fits into the bigger picture of the Extensible Stylesheet Language, and the differences between XSLT and XSL-FO. It then demonstrates practical examples of XSL transformations from XML to a variety of other useful formats including HTML, PDF, SVG and others. Later chapters discuss developer techniques for implementing XSLT within dynamic web environments including ASP and JSP. The author also covers debugging techniques and how XSLT relates to .NET. The book finishes with a useful reference section including detailed coverage of XSLT, XPath and XSL-FO.

This book addresses an unmet need in this topic area. It is a complete beginner's tutorial resource to tips, troubleshooting, techniques, and program development for Access 2002. The book covers fundamentals such as database normalization, query design, object manipulation, and optimization and custom programming for forms and reports. It makes the reader more efficient, productive, and knowledgeable in Access VBA. Speed techniques are mentioned. Shortcuts, tips, and techniques increase productivity. This book deals with getting data from outside sources and using VBA to ensure data integrity and consistency, which no other Access VBA book does. It also tackles problems in a variety of day-to-day situations that programmers often face. Bob Villareal is a contributor and a resident expert for the "Inside Microsoft Access" Web journal and an Access instructor at a Tulsa Community College. He also does freelance programming and instruction. Bob has been developing databases in a large insurance firm for more than 15 years. He has more than seven years' experience of VBA programming in both Access and Excel and has written many tracking and management applications.

Access Database Design & Programming takes you behind the details of the Access interface, focusing on the general knowledge necessary for Access power users or developers to create effective database applications. When using software products with graphical interfaces, we frequently focus so much on the interface that we forget about the general concepts that allow us to understand and use the software effectively. In particular, this book focuses on three areas: Unlike other Access books that take the long, detailed approach to every topic of concern to Access programmers, Database design. The book provides an enjoyable, informative overview of database design that carefully shows you how to normalize tables to eliminate redundancy without losing data. Queries. The book examines multi-table queries (i.e.,various types of joins) and shows how to implement them indirectly by using the Access interface or directly by using Access SQL. Programming. The book examines the VBA integrated development environment (IDE). It then goes on to provide an excellent introduction to Data Access Objects (DAO), ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), and ADO Extensions for Data Definition and Security (ADOX). These sections serve as a handy introduction and primer for basic database operations,such as modifying a table under program control, dynamically adding and deleting a record, and repositioning a record pointer. The concluding chapter focuses on common programming problems, such as computing running sums and comparing two sets. Access Database Design &Programming instead focuses on the core concepts, enabling programmers to develop solid, effective database applications. This book also serves as a 'second course' in Access that provides a relatively experienced Access user who is new to programming with the frequently overlooked techniques necessary to develop successfully in the Microsoft Access environment.Anyone interested in learning Access in depth, rather than just scraping the surface, will enjoy and benefit immensely from reading this book.

Arguably the most capable of all the open source databases, PostgreSQL is an object-relational database management system first developed in 1977 by the University of California at Berkeley. In spite of its long history, this robust database suffers from a lack of easy-to-use documentation. Practical PostgreSQL fills that void with a fast-paced guide to installation, configuration, and usage. This comprehensive new volume shows you how to compile PostgreSQL from source, create a database, and configure PostgreSQL to accept client-server connections. It also covers the many advanced features, such as transactions, versioning, replication, and referential integrity that enable developers and DBAs to use PostgreSQL for serious business applications. The thorough introduction to PostgreSQL's PL/pgSQL programming language explains how you can use this very useful but under-documented feature to develop stored procedures and triggers. The book includes a complete command reference, and database administrators will appreciate the chapters on user management, database maintenance, and backup & recovery. With Practical PostgreSQL, you will discover quickly why this open source database is such a great open source alternative to proprietary products from Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft.

This concise book gives you the information you need to effectively use the Simple API for XML (SAX2), the dominant API for efficient XML processing with Java. With the SAX2 API, developers have access to the information in XML documents as they are read, without imposing major memory constraints or a large code footprint. SAX2 is often used by other APIs "under the covers", and provides a foundation for processing and creating both XML and non-XML information. While generally considered the most efficient approach to handling XML document parsing, SAX2 also carries a significant learning curve. In SAX2, author David Brownell explores the many details of managing XML parsers, filtering the information those parsers return, generating your own SAX2 events to convert non-XML information to an XML form, and developing strategies for using event-based parsing in a variety of application scenarios. Created in a public process by the XML-Dev mailing list, the SAX2 API is compact and highly functional. SAX2 uses callbacks to report the information in an XML document as the document is read, allowing you to create your own program structures around the content of documents. No intermediary model of an entire XML document is necessary, and the mapping from XML structures to Java structures and back is straightforward. Both developers learning about SAX2 for the first time and developers returning for reference and advanced material about SAX2 will find useful information in this book. Chapters provide detailed explanations and examples of many different aspects of SAX2 development, while appendices provide a reference to the API and an explanation of the relationships between the SAX2 API and the XML Information Set. While the core of the API is quite approachable, many of its more advanced features are both obscure and powerful. You can use SAX2 to filter, modify, and restructure information in layers of processing which make it easy to reuse generic tools. SAX2 also has some significant limitations that applications need to address in their own ways. This new book gives you the detail and examples required to use SAX2 to its full potential, taking advantage of its power while avoiding its limitations.

One of the most important challenges faced by Oracle database administrators and Oracle developers is the need to tune SQL statements so that they execute efficiently. Poorly tuned SQL statements are one of the leading causes of substandard database performance and poor response time. SQL statements that perform poorly result in frustration for users, and can even prevent a company from serving its customers in a timely manner. In this book, Mark Gurry shares his in-depth knowledge of Oracle's SQL statement optimizers. Mark's knowledge is the result of many hard-fought tuning battles during his many years of providing Oracle tuning services to clients. Mark provides insights into the workings of the rule-based optimizer that go well beyond what the rules tell you. Mark also provides solutions to many common problems that occur with both the rule-based and cost-based optimizers. In addition to the specific problem/solution scenarios for the optimizers, Mark provides a number of handy SQL tuning tips. He discusses the various optimizer hints, telling you when they can be used to good effect. Finally, Mark discusses the use of the DBMS_STATS package to manage database statistics, and the use of outlines to specify execution plans for SQL statements in third-party applications that you can't otherwise modify.