On Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 7:46 AM, Hemant K Chitale <hkchital@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote: > > Some understanding that tables can be viewed as sets and SQL operations > work on "sets" of data instead of the "row-by-row" approach of procedural > methods is quite desirable. I've seen people floundering when they can't > differentiate between the two. > > That's the reply I was looking for. It's more fundamental than understanding relational theory. Getting past the hurtle of thinking in a row-by-row context ( slow-by-slow ala Tom Kyte) is probably the hardest concept for procedural programmers to master. Once you can think in terms of sets rather than rows, it all becomes much clearer. -- Jared Still Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist