User-level is listed as intermediate-advanced, certainly cannot be used as a beginner's only handbook, will not give the beginner a reliable grounding in the topic. Supposedly can be used as a learner's or a reference book, in my opinion, is neither. Which is the problem with this sort of work. Much valuable information contained, but with so many different authors there is no clear development or common style, rather atomic chapters, at times repeating the same information in a somewhat different fashion. Index is spotty. (Maybe this is an appropriate style for Oracle DBMS?). Is worth a read, does cover 8/8i and does contain Oracle 8i Personal Edition CD.

Granted...I am a junior DBA but this book is very good at presenting the basics with enough detail that I would definitely recommend it over many other general Oracle DBA books (including the Handbook by Oracle Press). It really helped in spelling out the exact steps to creating a database as well as installing Oracle (which for some reason many books neglect). With that said, whether you use this book or another book, it is a good idea to also purchase topic specific books (eg. Backup and Recovery, Tuning, etc.) when more detail is needed.

This is a wonderful book which covers all the aspects of Oracle, including all the interfaces with Oracle. A really excellent book for DBAs and Programmer Analysts. It helped me a lot in understanding DBA part. Am excellent Que publication. I appreciate the structure and contents of the book