Politecnico di Torino

Database Management System

Oracle Hints

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Data Base and Data Mining Group of Politecnico di Torino

Tania Cerquitelli, Daniele Apiletti

 Using Optimizer Hints
 You can use comments in a SQL statement to pass
instructions, or hints, to the Oracle Database optimizer
 Hints provide a mechanism to instruct the optimizer to
choose a certain query execution plan based on specific
criteria
 The optimizer uses these hints to choose an execution plan
for the statement, unless some condition exists that prevents
the optimizer from doing so
 Hints let you make decisions usually made by the optimizer
 you might know information about your data that the optimizer does
not know

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 Specifying Hints
 Hints apply only to the optimization of the block of a
statement in which they appear
 A statement block is any SELECT, UPDATE, or DELETE
statement, including sub-queries
 The plus sign (+) causes Oracle to interpret the comment as
a list of hints.
 The plus sign must follow immediately after the comment delimiter
 No space is permitted between the comment delimiter and the plus
sign
 The space between the plus sign and the hint is optional
 If the comment contains multiple hints, then separate the
hints by at least one space
 Example
 SELECT /*+ Hint1 Hint2 Hint3 */ columnName
FROM tableName
WHERE conditions […]

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 Optimizer hints categories
 Optimizer hints are grouped into the
following categories
 Hints for Optimization Approaches and Goals
 Hints for Access Paths
 Hints for Query Transformations
 Hints for Join Orders
 Hints for Join Operations
 Hints for Parallel Execution
 Additional Hints

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 Optimization Approaches and Goals
 The following hints let you choose between optimization
approaches and goals
 ALL_ROWS optimizes a statement block with a goal of best
throughput, i.e., minimum total resource consumption
 FIRST_ROWS(n) optimizes an individual SQL statement for fast
response, choosing the plan that returns the first n rows most
efficiently
 If a SQL statement has a hint specifying an optimization
approach and goal, then the optimizer uses the specified
approach regardless of the presence or absence of
 statistics (if absent, optimizer uses default statistical values)
 the OPTIMIZER_MODE initialization parameter
 the OPTIMIZER_MODE parameter of the ALTER SESSION statement
 The optimizer gives precedence to the hints for access paths
or join operations, before ALL_ROWS or FIRST_ROWS(n)

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 Hints for Access Paths
 Each of the following hints  FULL(table)
instructs the optimizer to use a
specific access path for a table  INDEX(table indexNames)
 Specifying one of these hints  NO_INDEX(table
causes the optimizer to choose indexNames)
the specified access path only if  INDEX_COMBINE(table
the access path is available
indexNames)
 existence of an index
 syntactic constructs of the SQL  INDEX_FFS(table
statement indexNames)
 You must specify the table to be  NO_INDEX_FFS(table
accessed exactly as it appears in
the statement indexNames)
 if the statement uses an alias for
the table, then use the alias
rather than the table name

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 Hints for Access Paths
 FULL(table)
 full table scan on the specified table
 if a table alias is defined, the table must be referenced with its alias
 INDEX(table indexName1 indexName2 …)
 index scan using one or more specified indexes for the specified table
 does not consider a full table scan or a scan on an index not listed
 NO_INDEX(table indexName1 indexName2 …)
 avoid using one or more specified indexes for the specified table
 INDEX_COMBINE(table indexName1 indexName2 …)
 uses a bitmap access path (Boolean combination) of the specified indexes for
the table
 INDEX_FFS(table indexName1 indexName2 …)
 instructs the optimizer to perform a fast full index scan rather than a full
table scan
 NO_INDEX_FFS(table indexName1 indexName2 …)
 excludes a fast full index scan of the specified indexes on the specified table

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 Join Operations
 Each of the following hints instructs the optimizer to
use a specific join operation for the specified tables
 USE_NL( table1, table2, …)
 NO_USE_NL ( … )
 USE_MERGE ( … )
 NO_USE_MERGE ( … )
 USE_HASH ( … )
 NO_USE_HASH ( … )
 Oracle uses these hints when the referenced table is
forced to be the inner table of a join; the hints are
ignored if the referenced table is the outer table

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 Join Orders
 The following hints suggest join orders
 ORDERED
 LEADING( table1 table2 …)
 The ORDERED hint instructs Oracle to join tables in
the order in which they appear in the FROM clause
 The LEADING hint instructs the optimizer to use the
specified set of tables as the hint parameters
 These hints let you choose an inner and outer table
 the first table is the outer table
 the second table is the inner table

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 Join Orders - Example
 SELECT /*+ ORDERED */ * LEADING( e d )
FROM emp e, dept d
WHERE d.deptno = e.deptno
| 1 | NESTED LOOPS | | 50012 | 3125K| 168 (48)| 00:00:03 |
| 2 | ACCESS FULL | EMP | 50111 | 2202K| 88 (4)| 00:00:02 |
| 3 | BY INDEX ROWID| DEPT | 1 | 19 | 1 (0)| 00:00:01 |
|* 4 | INDEX UNIQUE | SYS_... | 1 | | 0 (0)| 00:00:01 |
 Emp is the outer table
 Dept is the inner table
 SELECT /*+ ORDERED */ * LEADING( d e )
FROM dept d, emp e
WHERE d.deptno = e.deptno
| 1 | NESTED LOOPS | | 50012 | 3125K| 43855 (4)| 00:08:47 |
| 2 | TABLE ACCESS FULL| DEPT | 507 | 9633 | 3 (0)| 00:00:01 |
|* 3 | TABLE ACCESS FULL| EMP | 99 | 4455 | 86 (4)| 00:00:02 |
 Dept is the outer table
 Emp is the inner table

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 Example
 SELECT /*+
LEADING(e j)
USE_NL(e j)
INDEX(j empID_index)
FULL(e) */
e.empID, e.Name, sum(j.salary)
FROM empl e, jobs j
AND e.empID = j.empID
GROUP BY e.empID, e.Name
 the LEADING hint specifies the exact join order to be used
 the index empID_index is suggested to be used
 the join method USE_NL to be used on the join tables is
also specified
 the FULL table access path to table jobs is suggested

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