ECS 165A Database Systems 1

Oracle Query Optimization Tools

– The Very Basics –

Cost-Based Query Optimization

In order for the query optimizer to generate a query execution
plan based on a cost-based query optimization strategy, statistics
for the tables involved in the queries of interest need to be
determined. These statistics are stored in the data dictionary
views USER TABLES, USER TAB COLUMNS, and USER INDEXES.

Statistics are computed using the SQL analyze command:

analyze [table <table-name> | index <table-name>]
compute statistics |
estimate statistics [sample <integer> rows | percent] |
delete statistics;
compute = exact analysis (all tuples)
estimate = estimation using 1064 tuples (default)
sample number or percentage of rows to use
for sampling
delete = delete statistics

Examples:
• analyze table EMP estimate statistics sample 50 percent;
• analyze table EMP compute statistics;
• analyze table EMP delete statistics;

Statistics for indexes are determined in an analogous fashion:

analyze index <index-name> . . . ;

Michael Gertz Oracle Query Optimizer

ECS 165A Database Systems 2

Note: Starting with Oracle9i, using the package DBMS STATS

is the preferred method to collect/maintain statistics.

Aspects of cost-based query optimization

• Determine possible (logically equivalent) execution plans

• Cost estimate for each plan is based on the statistics and
storage characteristics
• Choose execution plan with minimal cost
• Role of selectivity of tuples:
good selectivity (only a few tuples satisfy search condition) →
index defined on search key
poor selectivity → full table scan
• Cost-based optimization has to take available resources into
account, e.g., for storing intermediate results
• Goal of best throughput: Nested-loops
• Goal of best response time: Merge-Join

The explain plan command

For select, update, delete, and insert statements, the
explain plan command generates and stores information about
the execution plan chosen by the query optimizer in a table called
PLAN TABLE. This table is created when you run the SQL script
$ORACLE HOME/rdbms/admin/utlxplan.sql in SQL*Plus. The
PLAN TABLE table then can be queried using a select statement.

Michael Gertz Oracle Query Optimizer

ECS 165A Database Systems 3

The syntax of the explain plan command is as follows:

explain plan set statement id = ’<name>’
for <SQL statement>;

Example: We want to generate the execution plan for the query

“List the name, job, salary and department of all employees whose
salary is not within the job’s salary range.”
explain plan set statement id = ’MYPLAN’
for select ENAME, JOB, SAL, DNAME
from EMP, DEPT
where EMP.DEPTNO = DEPT.DEPTNO
and not exists
(select ∗ from SALGRADE
where EMP.SAL between LOSAL and HISAL);

Note that every execution plan gets a statement id, which is

just some string. The rest is just a “normal” select statement.

The above explain plan statement causes the query optimizer

to insert data about the execution plan for the query into
PLAN TABLE. The following query can be used to view to content
of the plan table in an indented format, which reflects the tree
structure of the plan (the right-most entries correspond to the
leafs of the query tree).

Note that before creating a new plan with the same id, you
have to delete all entries from PLAN TABLE (delete from
PLAN TABLE;)

Michael Gertz Oracle Query Optimizer

ECS 165A Database Systems 4

select substr(lpad(’ ’,2*(level-1)),1,8)|| substr(operation,1,18) "OPERA

substr(options,1,12) "OPTIONS",
substr(object_name,1,16) object_name,
id, parent_id, cost, cardinality,
bytes, filter_predicates
from plan_table
start with id=0 and statement_id = ’MYPLAN’
connect by prior id = parent_id and statement_id = ’MYPLAN’;

This select statement generates an output that looks like this

(some output attributes are omitted):

Output:
OPERATION OPTIONS OBJECT_NAME ID PARENT_ID
--------------------- ------- ----------- -- ---------
SELECT STATEMENT 0
FILTER 1 0
MERGE JOIN 2 1
SORT JOIN 3 2
TABLE ACCESS FULL DEPT 4 3
SORT JOIN 5 2
TABLE ACCESS FULL EMP 6 5
TABLE ACCESS FULL SALGRADE 7 1

Meaning of the Columns of PLAN TABLE (10 out of 31)

OPERATION Name of the operation performed at this step

OPTIONS Options used for the operation performed at this step
OBJECT NAME The name of the table or index used in operation
ID Identification number for this step in the execution plan
PARENT ID ID of the next step that operates on the results of
this step

Michael Gertz Oracle Query Optimizer

ECS 165A Database Systems 5

COST Cost of the current operation estimated by the cost-based

optimizer (CBO). The value of this column does not have any
particular unit of measurement, it is merely a weighted value
used to compare costs of execution plans.
CARDINALITY Number of rows returned by the current operation
(estimated by the CBO)
BYTES Number of bytes returned by the current operation

Some others that are not shown in the output above but which
might be useful in fully describing an execution plan (see also
PLAN TABLE in Oracle Reference Manual):

ACCESS PREDICATES Predicates used to locate rows in an access

structure. For example, start or stop predicates for an index
range scan.
FILTER PREDICATES Predicates used to filter rows before
producing them

The top-most operation is typically select statement if the

SQL statement was a select query.

Michael Gertz Oracle Query Optimizer

ECS 165A Database Systems 6

Meaning of some operation/option value pairs

TABLE ACCESS+ FULL A retrieval of all rows from a table.

BY ROWID A retrieval of a row from a table based
on its ROWID.
HASH A retrieval of rows from a table based
on a value of the key of hash cluster.
SORT UNIQUE Operation that sorts a set of rows to
eliminate duplicates.
AGGREGATE Retrieval of a single row that is the
result of applying a group function to
a group of selected rows.
JOIN Operation that sorts a set of rows
before a merge-join operation
GROUP BY Operation sorting a set of rows into
groups for a query with a GROUP BY
clause.
NESTED LOOPS+ Join operation that accepts two sets
of rows, an outer set and an inner set.

See also Chapter 19, Table 19.3 in Performance Tuning Guide;

there are more than 60 combinations explained in more detail.

Michael Gertz Oracle Query Optimizer

ECS 165A Database Systems 7

MERGE JOIN+ Operation that accepts two sets of

rows, each sorted by a specific value,
combines each row from one set with
the matching rows from the other, and
returns the result.
FILTER Operation that accepts a set of rows,
eliminates some of them, and returns
the rest (∼ select).
UNION, INTERSECTION, MINUS (Set operations)
INDEX∗ UNIQUE SCAN A retrieval of a single ROWID from an
index.
RANGE SCAN A retrieval of one or more ROWIDs
from an index. Indexed values are
scanned in ascending order.
RANGE SCAN A retrieval of one or more ROWIDs
from an index.
DESCENDING Indexed values are scanned in
descending order.
FIRST ROW A retrieval on only the first row
selected by a query.
COUNT Operation counting the number of
rows selected from a table.
∗
ˆ These operations are access methods
=
+
ˆ operations are join operations.
=

Michael Gertz Oracle Query Optimizer