Oracle Certification Exams - SQL Fundamentals I - Introduction

Introduction
OCP Exam Topics
Conclusion

Oracle Certified Professional (OCP)

I should start my giving a little bit of information about my background. I'm an IT Professional, and one of my core skills is databases, and specifically for the purposes of this blog the Oracle database. I've been working with Oracle for over 12 years, since version 6, both as a developer and a DBA.

As I'm preparing to study for the Oracle Certified Professional exams, I thought what better way to help my studies than write an article for each of the topics I cover. My style of learning has always involved writing everything down, this helps me to both organise and summarise what I'm learning, and acts as a reference for future revisions.

DBA certification, and specifically the Certified Associate (OCA) and Certified Professional (OCP) tracks are what interest me. Therefore I'm going to start with the Oracle Database 11g: SQL Fundamentals I exam.

Checking the Oracle Education page the Exam Topics are as per the next tab.

Oracle Database 11g: SQL Fundamentals I

Retrieving Data Using the SQL SELECT Statement
[ ]	List the capabilities of SQL SELECT statements
[ ]	Execute a basic SELECT statement
Restricting and Sorting Data
[ ]	Limit the rows that are retrieved by a query
[ ]	Sort the rows that are retrieved by a query
[ ]	Use ampersand substitution to restrict and sort output at runtime
Using Single-Row Functions to Customize Output
[ ]	Describe various types of functions available in SQL
[ ]	Use character, number, and date functions in SELECT statements
Using Conversion Functions and Conditional Expressions
[ ]	Describe various types of conversion functions that are available in SQL
[ ]	Use the TO_CHAR, TO_NUMBER, and TO_DATE conversion functions
[ ]	Apply conditional expressions in a SELECT statement

Reporting Aggregated Data Using the Group Functions
[ ]	Identify the available group functions
[ ]	Describe the use of group functions
[ ]	Group data by using the GROUP BY clause
[ ]	Include or exclude grouped rows by using the HAVING clause
Displaying Data from Multiple Tables
[ ]	Write SELECT statements to access data from more than one table using equijoins and nonequijoins
[ ]	Join a table to itself by using a self-join
[ ]	View data that generally does not meet a join condition by using outer joins
[ ]	Generate a Cartesian product of all rows from two or more tables
Using Subqueries to Solve Queries
[ ]	Define subqueries
[ ]	Describe the types of problems that the subqueries can solve
[ ]	List the types of subqueries
[ ]	Write single-row and multiple-row subqueries
Using the Set Operators
[ ]	Describe set operators
[ ]	Use a set operator to combine multiple queries into a single query
[ ]	Control the order of rows returned

Manipulating Data
[ ]	Describe each data manipulation language (DML) statement
[ ]	Insert rows into a table
[ ]	Update rows in a table
[ ]	Delete rows from a table
[ ]	Control transactions
Using DDL Statements to Create and Manage Tables
[ ]	Categorise the main database objects
[ ]	Review the table structure
[ ]	List the data types that are available for columns
[ ]	Create a simple table
[ ]	Explain how constraints are created at the time of table creation
[ ]	Describe how schema objects work
Creating Other Schema Objects
[ ]	Create simple and complex views
[ ]	Retrieve data from views
[ ]	Create, maintain, and use sequences
[ ]	Create and maintain indexes
[ ]	Create private and public synonyms

Reading through these points there's nothing that I shouldn't already know about, but I'm sure that Oracle must have made the exam reasonably difficult - otherwise it wouldn't have gained any standing in the industry. There are areas here that I would just look up in the Oracle manuals, but for the exam I'll need to have them committed to memory.

I should make it clear at this point that I'm going to assume a level of knowledge with SQL and databases in any of my posts. In other words this is not going to be suitable for newcomers to Oracle and SQL, more someone,like myself, who works with Oracle and would like to formalise that knowledge by taking the OCP exams. Anyway I hope what I write can be of help to others.

Anyway on to the first topic, Relational Theory.

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