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Oracle 8 Semi-Joins: Optimizes Queries Using EXISTS Where There Is No Supporting Index

Oracle 8 introduces semi-joins, which optimize queries using EXISTS operators without supporting indexes. Without semi-joins, such queries would perform very poorly by scanning the inner table for each row in the outer table. Semi-joins allow the query to be resolved using more efficient sort-merge or hash joins. Oracle 8 also introduces star transformations, which optimize star queries involving large fact tables joined to multiple dimension tables through the use of bitmap indexes rather than concatenated indexes.

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Jasu Mak
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49 views13 pages

Oracle 8 Semi-Joins: Optimizes Queries Using EXISTS Where There Is No Supporting Index

Oracle 8 introduces semi-joins, which optimize queries using EXISTS operators without supporting indexes. Without semi-joins, such queries would perform very poorly by scanning the inner table for each row in the outer table. Semi-joins allow the query to be resolved using more efficient sort-merge or hash joins. Oracle 8 also introduces star transformations, which optimize star queries involving large fact tables joined to multiple dimension tables through the use of bitmap indexes rather than concatenated indexes.

Uploaded by

Jasu Mak
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Oracle 8 semi-joins

 Optimizes queries using EXISTS where there is no


supporting index
select * No index on employees
from customers c
where exists
(select 1 from employees e
where e.surname=c.contact_surname
and e.firstname=c.contact_firstname
and e.date_of_birth=c.date_of_birth)
Oracle 8 semi-joins

 Without the semi-join or supporting index, queries like


the one on the preceding slide will perform very badly.
 Oracle will perform a tablescan of the inner table for
each row retrieved by the outer table
 If customers has 100,000 rows, and employees 800
rows then 80 MILLION rows will be processed!
 In Oracle7, you should create the index or use an IN-
based subquery
 In Oracle8, the semi-join facility allows the query to be
resolved by a sort-merge or hash join.
To Use semi-joins

 Set ALWAYS_SEMI_JOIN=HASH or MERGE in


INIT.ORA, OR
 Use a MERGE_SJ or HASH_SJ hint in the subquery
of the SQL statement
SELECT *
FROM customers c
WHERE exists
(select /*+merge_sj*/ 1
from employees e
where ….)
Oracle8 semi-joins

 The performance improvements are impressive (note


the logarithmic scale)
1,343.19
EXISTS no semi-join or indexes

31.01
EXISTS no semi-join but with index

6.83
EXISTS - merge semi-join

6.69
IN-based subquery

1 10 100 1,000 10,000

Elapsed time (logarithmic scale)


Star Join improvements

 A STAR join involves a large “FACT” table being


joined to a number of smaller “dimension” tables
Star Join improvements

 The Oracle7 Star join algorithm works well when there is a


concatenated index on all the FACT table columns
 But when there are a large number of dimensions, creating
concatenated indexes for all possible queries is impossible.
 Oracle8’s “Star transformation” involves re-wording the query
so that it can be supported by combinations of bitmap indexes.
 Since bitmap indexes can be efficiently combined, a single
bitmap index on each column can support all possible queries.
To enable the star transformation

 Create bitmap indexes on each of the FACT table


columns which are used in star queries
 Make sure that
STAR_TRANSFORMATION_ENABLED is TRUE,
either by changing init.ora or using an ALTER
SESSION statement.
 Use the STAR_TRANSFORMATION hint if necessary.
Drawback of Star transformation

 Bitmap indexes reduce concurrency (row-level locking


may break down).

 But remember that large number of distinct column


values may not matter
Star transformation performance

 When there is no suitable concatenated index, the


Star transformation results in a significant
improvement
0.35

No suitable concatenated index


9.94

Star_transformation
Star
0.24

Concatenated index
0.01

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Elapsed time (s)


Hint #9: Use ARRAY processing
– Retrieve or insert rows in batches, rather than one at a time.
– Methods of doing this are language specific

60

50

40
Elapsed time

30

20

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300
Array size
Hint #10: Consider PL/SQL for
“tricky” SQL
 With SQL you specify the data you want, not how to
get it. Sometime you need to specifically dictate your
retrieval algorithms.
 For example:
– Getting the second highest value
– Doing lookups on a low-high lookup table
– Correlated updates
– SQL with multiple complex correlated subqueries
– SQL that seems to hard to optimize unless it is broken into
multiple queries linked in PL/SQL
Oracle8i PL/SQL Improvements

– Array processing

– NOCOPY

– Temporary tables

– The profiler

– Dynamic SQL

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