Setting up a development environment to learn PL/SQL

Question

I want to setup a sandbox environment to hone in on my pl/sql and database skills. I was thinking of downloading the full version of Oracle 11G and using SQL Developer. Se

Answer 1

If you want to sandbox the whole environment, Oracle provide pre-built VM images which contain an 11g database, SQL Developer and other tools; more info here, and if you just want PL/SQL the first version listed should have everything you need.

As well as being very quick and easy to set up - no DBA knowledge required - it's completely isolated from any real environments you want to avoid interfering with, can run on any machine and O/S that runs VirtualBox, and best of all, if (or when) you really mess something up you can trash it and start again.

Answer 2

ISTBC, but I believe you need a licence to run 11g Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition or Standard Edition One.

Express Edition however is free. It's exactly the same database, it just has some size limits that you're unlikely to hit whilst you're learning.

Oracle Database 11g Express Edition (Oracle Database XE) is an entry-level, small-footprint database based on the Oracle Database 11g Release 2 code base. It's free to develop, deploy, and distribute; fast to download; and simple to administer.

More info here:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/express-edition/overview/index.html

Answer 3

Yes, your approach is perfectly good. Download latest 11g and SQL Dev. Read Steven Feuerstein books. Have fun.