Oracle SQL is one of the world's most powerful dialects, packed with advanced functions and features that give Oracle SQL procedural language capabilities. Using these powerful features it is no longer necessary to embed Oracle SQL inside a procedural language, and native Oracle SQL can now be used to solve complex query problems. This is an indispensable book for all Oracle DBA's and developers who need to understand how to apply Oracle SQL features for complex queries. Written by a certified Oracle Master and Oracle ACE, this advanced book shows working examples of how to leverage Oracle SQL's powerful built-in functions for fast extraction of complex data and how to use native SQL for procedural processing. Every developer needs to know how to use Oracle SQL to summarize and aggregate data from large tables and how to use powerful features such as the "model" clause to make SQL act as a procedural language. This book shows important techniques on how to leverage Oracle's powerful XML interface to quickly format Oracle data with XML for instant publication. This is not a book for beginners or dilettantes and it is designed for the professional Oracle developer, covering many advanced Oracle SQL techniques including XML queries, Oracle SQL analytics, SQL for aggregation, and traversing Hierarchies. Best of all, the author reveals secrets for retrieving Oracle data faster and more elegantly than the traditional approaches to writing SQL.