Steven Feuerstein's first book, Oracle PR/SQL Programming, has become an indispensable reference for both novice and experienced PL/SQL developers. This new book focuses on one particularly important and advanced aspect of Oracle's powerful PL/SQL language -- the built-in packages. Built-in packages are collections of PL/SQL objects stored directly in the Oracle database and available from such programming environments as Visual Basic, Oracle Developer/2000, Oracle application server (for web-based development), and, of course, the Oracle database itself. Built-in packages dramatically extend the capabilities of PL/SQL. For example, DBMS_SQL executes dynamically constructed SQL statements and PL/SQL blocks of code; DBMS_PIPE communicates between different Oracle sessions; and DBMS_LOB accesses and manipulates Oracle8's large objects (LOBs) from within PL/SQL programs. Oracle Built-in Packages is the first and only comprehensive reference to the Oracle built-in packages. It supplies extensive examples on using the built-ins effectively and covers the newest Oracle8 packages. The book comes with a diskette containing the companion guide, an online tool developed by RevealNet, Inc., that provides point-and-click access to more than 175 files of reusable source code and examples.