Sybase Developer Needs To Learn Oracle

Question

I am pretty much a Sybase expert, an experienced developer, and very comfortable learning new stuff.
I need to write a bunch of SQL to run against an Oracle database.
Can someone recommend a book, training course or other resource to give me what I need to know in the shortest possible time?

I don't need Oracle for Dummies, but something more like Oracle for people who already know SQL and RDBMS.

I know that @Martin asked a similar question regarding SQL Server to Oracle, but SQL Server is (nowadays) different enough that I'd like any sybase-specific help you can give.

Thanks :)

Answer 1

Tom Kyte's latest book "Expert Oracle Database Architecture:9i and 10g Programming Techniques and Solutions" is definitely what you want.

For PL/SQL look for Steven Feuerstein's book

Answer 2

I would suggest the "Mastering Oracle SQL, 2nd ed" by Beaulieu and Mishra for SQL and Feuerstein's book for PL/SQL.

Answer 3

If you're just doing SQL queries I wouldn't worry too much about it. Many of the built-in functions are different, especially those around date handling, and there are some foibles you need to be aware of (you can do equality tests on NULL values) but that's nothing that an O'Reilly book can't tell you. I like SQL in a Nutshell.

Where you need to be more careful is when your designing databases. There are some fairly fundamental differences about schemas, users, and, especially, how you use stored procedures and triggers. This would be a long answer had I not just uploaded a presentation I did about this subject to my website. (Kind of less useful without my spiel but hopefully you'll find it useful.)

Answer 4

If you look at the migration tools web page for Oracle they have some data on the differences. Also google converting Sybase to Oracle for other write ups.

SQL Developer 1.5 a free developer IDE has window that will convert sybase/sql server code into Oracle. It is a great place to start the process of converting code and to learn what has to change.

I am in the middle of a Sybase to Oracle conversion and in general it is not too bad except for a few things like updates.

Answer 5

You could also just read the manual! They are all online here. Since you already know SQL mostly you'll just want to be checking for syntax differences and the language reference guides are great for that.

You could also try using the Oracle SQL Developer development tool. It should help you with a lot of the creating database objects and the PL/SQL development process.

Answer 6

You could do what you've done and use resources like StackOverflow! Simple Talk Publishing have recently set up a dedicated Stack Exchange site for Oracle.

http://www.oracleoverflow.com/