Install Oracle 11g Express Edition, accept the license, use default install settings, set a password, start the database, and connect as HR to explore the employees table.

Learn how Oracle PL/SQL functions return values and integrate into expressions, how procedures perform actions without returns, and how packages group these units with spec and body, plus event-driven triggers.

Learn Oracle PL/SQL data types, including varchar2 and char strings, date and timestamp values (with time zone), numeric types like number and integer, and boolean expressions.

Learn about variables, constants, and parameters in Oracle PL/SQL, including memory locations, initialization, and basic data types, with counters, dates, strings, and output examples.

Explore flow control in PL/SQL by using if and case statements, including simple and searched cases, plus looping constructs like for, while, and unconditional loops with exit conditions.

Master booleans in Oracle SQL, using true, false, and null, with inline expressions or assignments for reuse; and learn about clob, blob, bfile, and dbms_lob with chunked processing.

Learn Oracle SQL Developer navigation and how to create and test new connections. Use the navigator and editor to work with packages, procedures, and functions in the SQL worksheet.

Explore creating and editing code in SQL Developer, including worksheets, procedures, functions, and packages, and learn to connect, compile, run, and refresh.

Convert an anonymous block into a create or replace procedure named larget with an in parameter and a default hello world for logging output; compile, run, and observe debug messages.

Implement autonomous transactions to log messages in a separate transaction using a log table; commit or rollback independently from the main program flow.

Explore loop constructs in Oracle PL/SQL with the print_business_days procedure, counting working days (Monday through Friday) between dates using inclusive exit logic.

Learn how to compute business days in PL/SQL by using an associative table of holidays to exclude weekends and holidays, and explore converting between while, loop, and for loop constructs.

Explore built-in SQL functions, including decode, case, and string handling with substr and position, and learn when to use native SQL versus PL/SQL for efficient data manipulation.

Explore Oracle PL/SQL exception handling, including runtime errors, no data found, and named exceptions, and learn how to propagate or handle errors across executable and anonymous blocks.

Master robust Oracle PL/SQL exception handling by logging and selectively raising errors, avoiding suppressed exceptions, and standardizing codes through an exceptions package for consistent, maintainable code.

Explore updates and deletes in PL/SQL by building update APIs with defaults and named parameter notation, and handling nulls. Implement delete by primary key and practice controlled commits.

Learn how to use cursors in Oracle PL/SQL by declaring parameterized cursors, opening and fetching rows, and looping with a cursor for loop, including handling not found and row count.

Discover how the cursor for loop shortens code by auto-creating a local record during iteration. See how it compares to open the fetch and how bulk operations supersede it.