I want to learn Oracle. Where should I begin?

June 16, 2015

in Miscellaneous

Learn Oracle

Here is a simple guide to help you learn Oracle as a developer from scratch, on your own. For an absolute beginner to Oracle, it helps you navigate your way around the sea of information available at your disposal.

A 5-step answer to the question "How to learn Oracle?"

1. Get yourself an Oracle development environment

If you are learning at your workplace, ask for access to a training instance of the Oracle database.

If you are learning on your own, download Oracle XE — the free, lite version of the Oracle database. The latest version is available for download here: Oracle Database 11g Express Edition.

Register on Oracle LiveSQL, which gives you access to an empty Oracle 12c schema via the web browser without having to install anything. You can try out your scripts in LiveSQL or reuse their community scripts.

2. Do the basic Oracle Learning Library Course

Oracle’s comprehensive learning library has some courses designed for beginners.  Of these, you can start with the Oracle by Example (OBE) tutorial: Oracle Database Quickstart.

With the course, you should be able to do these basic operations in the Oracle database:

  • Create a schema and connect to it
  • Create and delete tables
  • Insert, modify, and delete records in a table
  • Query, filter and sort data
  • Assign and revoke privileges

Depending on your interest, you can choose to dig deeper into specific areas by taking up any number of 12c tutorials.

[Oracle Database Quickstart lists the following as pre-requisites, but if you already have a development environment at your disposal, you need not go through them for setup your environment:

(a) Installing Oracle Database Software and Creating a Database
(b) Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Manager Express]

3. Read the Database 2-Day Developer’s Guide

Oracle has a handy 2-Day Developer’s Guide in tune for beginners, a primer for Oracle application development using SQL and PL/SQL.

The latest at the time of writing this (Oracle 12c guide) – is here .

If you are using Oracle XE 11g R2, the corresponding documentation is here: Database 2-Day Developers Guide (11g R2).

By the end of reading and working with the 2-Day Developer’s Guide, you should have an understanding of how to do these in the Oracle database:

  • Create and manage DB objects
  • Develop stored procedures, packages
  • Use triggers
  • Implement globalization support
  • Understand SQL and PLSQL best practices
  • Develop and deploy a simple Oracle database application

4. Visit Oracle discussion forums

After getting the hang of the basics, visit some good Oracle discussion forums to see real-world problems that others face in Oracle development, and what kind of solutions help them.

Here are a few useful forums:

5. Work on a project

Nothing helps more than on-the-job experience. Master the basics, then get on an actual project with Oracle database work. If you get to work with those who know more than you, learn from them.

All the best on your journey to learning Oracle development. It is a fascinating ride!

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Steven Feuerstein October 27, 2015 at 8:27 pm

I suggest you add LiveSQL.Oracle.com to your lists of sites and resources. The entire planet (or at least all the humans on it) now have 24×7, free access to an Oracle Database 12c database on which to learn SQL and PL/SQL.

2 oratabler October 30, 2015 at 6:08 am

@Steven Feuerstein: Thank you, that’s a very useful one. I have updated the article to include LiveSQL.

3 sambasiva May 10, 2016 at 6:08 pm

Thank you so much for sharing knowledege about sql and plsql.This is the site very good for oracle learners .

4 David November 1, 2016 at 11:55 am

I would like to add couple of more sources to learn from http://education.oracle.com/
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/tutorials/index.html
https://apexapps.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=44785:1:0

David Smith, OCP
Sr.Oracle Developer
catchexperts

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