7

Managing Schema Objects

Copyright © 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to do

the following:
• Define schema objects and data types
• Create and modify tables
• Define constraints
• View the columns and contents of a table
• Create indexes
• Create views
• Create sequences
• Explain the use of temporary tables
• Use the data dictionary

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 > Schema
What Is a Schema? Constraints
Indexes
Views
Sequences
Temp Tables
Data Dict

owns

HR schema
HR user

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 Accessing Schema Objects

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 Naming Database Objects

• The length of names must be from 1 to 30 bytes,

with these exceptions:
– Names of databases are limited to 8 bytes.
– Names of database links can be as long as 128
bytes.
• Nonquoted names cannot be Oracle-reserved
words.
• Nonquoted names must begin with an alphabetic
character from your database character set.
• Quoted names are not recommended.

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 Specifying Data Types in Tables

Common data types:

• CHAR(size [BYTE|CHAR]): Fixed-length
character data of size bytes or characters
• VARCHAR2(size [BYTE|CHAR]): Variable-length
character string having a maximum length of size
bytes or characters
• DATE: Valid date ranging from January 1, 4712 B.C.
through A.D. December 31, 9999
• NUMBER(p,s): Number with precision p and
scale s

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 Creating and Modifying Tables

Specify the table

name and schema.

Specify the column names,

data types, and lengths.

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 Schema
Understanding Data Integrity > Constraints
Indexes
Views
Sequences
Temp Tables
Data Dict

JOB_HISTORY DEPARTMENTS LOCATIONS

EMPLOYEE_ID DEPARTMENT_ID (PK) LOCATION_ID (PK)
(PK,FK) EMPLOYEES DEPARTMENT_NAME STREET_ADDRESS
START_DATE (PK) EMPLOYEE_ID (PK) MANAGER_ID POSTAL_CODE
END_DATE FIRST_NAME LOCATION_ID (FK) CITY
JOB_ID (FK) LAST_NAME STATE_PROVINCE
DEPARTMENT_ID (FK) EMAIL COUNTRY_ID (FK)
PHONE_NUMBER
HIRE_DATE
JOB_ID (FK)
SALARY
COMMISION_PCT
MANAGER_ID (FK)
DEPARTMENT_ID (FK) COUNTRIES
COUNTRY_ID (PK)
JOBS COUNTRY_NAME
JOB_ID (PK) REGION_ID (FK)
JOB_TITLE
MIN_SALARY
MAX_SALARY

REGIONS
REGION_ID (PK)
REGION_NAME

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 Defining Constraints

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 Constraint Violations

Examples of how a constraint can be violated are:

• Inserting a duplicate primary key value
• Deleting the parent of a child row in a referential
integrity constraint
• Updating a column to a value that is out of the
bounds of a check constraint
ID AGE
101 … X …
…
22
49
–30
102 …
101
103 … … 16
… 5

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 Constraint States

DISABLE DISABLE ENABLE ENABLE

NOVALIDATE VALIDATE NOVALIDATE VALIDATE

No
DML

New data

Existing data

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 Constraint Checking

Constraints are checked at the time of:

• Statement execution, for nondeferred constraints
• COMMIT, for deferred constraints

Case: DML statement, followed by COMMIT

1 Nondeferred constraints
checked

2 COMMIT issued

3 Deferred constraints checked

4 COMMIT complete

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 Creating Constraints with SQL: Examples

ALTER TABLE countries

a
ADD (UNIQUE(country_name) ENABLE NOVALIDATE);

ALTER TABLE employees ADD CONSTRAINT pk PRIMARY KEY

b
(employee_id)

CREATE TABLE t1 (pk NUMBER PRIMARY KEY, fk NUMBER, c1 NUMBER,

c c2 NUMBER,
CONSTRAINT ri FOREIGN KEY (fk) REFERENCES t1, CONSTRAINT ck1
CHECK (pk > 0 and c1 > 0));

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 Viewing the Columns in a Table

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 Viewing the Contents of a Table

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 Actions with Tables

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 Dropping a Table

Dropping a table removes:

• Data
DROP TABLE hr.employees PURGE;
• Table structure
• Database triggers
• Corresponding indexes
• Associated object privileges
Optional clauses for the DROP TABLE statement:
• CASCADE CONSTRAINTS: Dependent referential
integrity constraints
• PURGE: No flashback possible

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 Truncating a Table

TRUNCATE TABLE hr.employees;

• Truncating a table makes its row data unavailable,

and optionally releases used space.
• Corresponding indexes are truncated.

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 Schema
Indexes Constraints
> Indexes
Views
Sequences
Temp Tables
Data Dict
… WHERE key = 22

Row
Key pointer

22

22

Index Table

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 Types of Indexes

These are several types of index structures available

to you, depending on the need:
• A B-tree index is in the form of a binary tree and is
the default index type.
• A bitmap index has a bitmap for each distinct
value indexed, and each bit position represents a
row that may or may not contain the indexed
value. This is best for low-cardinality columns.

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 B-Tree Index

Index entry

Root

Branch

Index entry header

Leaf Key column length
Key column value
ROWID

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 Bitmap Indexes

Table File 3
Block 10

Block 11

Index Block 12

Start End
Key ROWID ROWID Bitmap
<Blue, 10.0.3, 12.8.3, 1000100100010010100>
<Green, 10.0.3, 12.8.3, 0001010000100100000>
<Red, 10.0.3, 12.8.3, 0100000011000001001>
<Yellow, 10.0.3, 12.8.3, 0010001000001000010>

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 Index Options

• A unique index ensures that every indexed value

is unique.
• An index can have its key values stored in
ascending or descending order.
• A reverse key index has its key value bytes stored
in reverse order.
• A composite index is one that is based on more
than one column.
• A function-based index is an index based on a
function’s return value.
• A compressed index has repeated key values
removed.

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 Creating Indexes

CREATE INDEX my_index ON

employees(last_name, first_name);

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 Schema
What Is a View? Constraints
Indexes
> Views
…
LOCATION table

COUNTRY table
View

CREATE VIEW v AS SELECT location_id, country_name FROM

locations l, countries c
WHERE l.country_id = c.country_id AND c.country_id in
('AU','BR');

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 Creating Views

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 Schema
Sequences Constraints
Indexes
Views
> Sequences
Temp Tables
Data Dict
A sequence is a mechanism for automatically
generating integers that follow a pattern.
• A sequence has a name, which is 1
2
how it is referenced when the next 3
4
value is requested. 5

• A sequence is not associated with

any particular table or column.
• The progression can be ascending or
descending.
• The interval between numbers can be of any size.
• A sequence can cycle when a limit is reached.

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 Creating a Sequence

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 Using a Sequence

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 Schema
Temporary Tables Constraints
Indexes
Views
Sequences
> Temp Tables
Data Dict
A temporary table:
• Provides storage of data that is automatically
cleaned up when the session or transaction ends
• Provides private storage of data for each session
• Is available to all sessions for use without
affecting each other’s private data

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 Temporary Tables: Considerations

• Use the GLOBAL TEMPORARY clause to create

temporary tables:

CREATE GLOBAL TEMPORARY TABLE employees_temp

ON COMMIT PRESERVE ROWS
AS SELECT * FROM employees;

• Use the TRUNCATE TABLE command to delete the

contents of the table.
• You can create the following on temporary tables:
– Indexes
– Views
– Triggers

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 Schema
Data Dictionary: Overview Constraints
Indexes
Views
Sequences
Temp Tables
> Data Dict

Tables
Indexes
Views
Users
Schemas
Procedures
and so on

SELECT * FROM dictionary;

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 Data Dictionary Views

Who Can Contents Subset of Notes

Query
DBA_ DBA Everything N/A May have additional
columns meant for DBA
use only
ALL_ Everyone Everything DBA_ Includes user’s own
that the user views objects
has
privileges to
see
USER_ Everyone Everything ALL_ Is usually the same as
that the user views ALL_ except for the
owns missing OWNER column.
Some views have
abbreviated names as
PUBLIC synonyms.

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 Data Dictionary: Usage Examples

a SELECT table_name, tablespace_name FROM

user_tables;

SELECT sequence_name, min_value, max_value,

b increment_by FROM all_sequences WHERE
sequence_owner IN ('MDSYS','XDB');

c SELECT USERNAME, ACCOUNT_STATUS FROM

dba_users WHERE ACCOUNT_STATUS = 'OPEN';

d DESCRIBE dba_indexes;

7-47 Copyright © 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Summary

In this lesson, you should have learned how to:

• Define schema objects and data types
• Create and modify tables
• Define constraints
• View the columns and contents of a table
• Create indexes
• Create views
• Create sequences
• Explain the use of temporary tables
• Use the data dictionary

7-48 Copyright © 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Practice Overview:
Administering Schema Objects

This practice covers the following topics:

• Creating tables with columns
• Creating constraints:
– Primary Key
– Foreign Key
– Check constraint
• Creating indexes

7-49 Copyright © 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.