In this first of a series of presentations, we'll overview the differences between SQL and PL/SQL, and the first steps in optimization, as understanding RULE vs. COST, and how to slash 90% response time in data extractions running in SQL*Plus.

1. Carlos Oliveira / May 31, 2012

2. Agenda
 Oracle Database Overview
 Introduction
 What isSQL & PL/SQL
 Performance X Organization
 What is an Access Plan
 Access Plan
 Rules
 Cost
 Our Environment Parameters
 How to use Cost
 Improve Performance in SQL*Plus
 POC
 Training & Reference
 Questions

3. Introduction
I am a forward-looking Information Systems Architect with a
solid Oracle DBA background comprising the daily
infrastructure tasks of the DBA, several projects as a Data
Modeler, and performance management projects.
I Started on the mainframe business, and soon had a deep dive
in application development for Oracle databases. After
acquiring an Oracle certification, I worked on performance
enhancement for applications using Oracle databases, and later
worked several years as an infrastructure DBA, later I worked
on data modeling projects and more recently a performance
management project, on both application and database layers.

4. “The limits of my language
mean the limits of my world.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein

5. What is SQL & PL/SQL
•SQL - Is a data oriented language for selecting and manipulating sets of
data.
•It has to be parsed and transformed by the database into an execution plan
of how to access the data
•The execution plan can be different due to environment changes
•PL/SQL is a procedural language to create applications.
•It is already a series of statements and commands to be executed by the
database
•The program flow doesn't change, no matter the changes in the
environment.

6. Performance X Organization
PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATION
SQL •Faster access to data •Easier to understand the access plan
•Faster retrieval of data •Easier to maintain the query
PL/SQL •Faster execution of the program •Easier to read the code
•Less memory used •Easier to maintain the program

7. What is an Access Plan
It is created by Oracle optimizer for SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT, and DELETE statements.
A statement's execution plan is the sequence of operations Oracle performs to run the statement.
The row source tree is the core of the execution plan. It shows the following information:
•An ordering of the tables referenced by the statement
•An access method for each table mentioned in the statement
•A join method for tables affected by join operations in the statement
•Data operations like filter, sort, or aggregation
In addition to the row source tree, the plan table contains information about the following:
•Optimization, such as the cost and cardinality of each operation
•Partitioning, such as the set of accessed partitions
•Parallel execution, such as the distribution method of join inputs
The ACCESS PLAN results let you determine whether the optimizer selects a particular execution
plan, such as, nested loops join. It also helps you to understand the optimizer decisions, such as why the
optimizer chose a nested loops join instead of a hash join, and lets you understand the performance of a
query.

8. Access Plan
SELECT e.employee_id, j.job_title, e.salary, d.department_name
FROM employees e, jobs j, departments d
WHERE e.employee_id < 103
AND e.job_id = j.job_id
AND e.department_id = d.department_id;
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 3 | 189 | 10 (10)|
| 1 | NESTED LOOPS | | 3 | 189 | 10 (10)|
| 2 | NESTED LOOPS | | 3 | 141 | 7 (15)|
|* 3 | TABLE ACCESS FULL | EMPLOYEES | 3 | 60 | 4 (25)|
| 4 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| JOBS | 19 | 513 | 2 (50)|
|* 5 | INDEX UNIQUE SCAN | JOB_ID_PK | 1 | | |
| 6 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID | DEPARTMENTS | 27 | 432 | 2 (50)|
|* 7 | INDEX UNIQUE SCAN | DEPT_ID_PK | 1 | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
3 - filter("E"."EMPLOYEE_ID"<103)
5 - access("E"."JOB_ID"="J"."JOB_ID")
7 - access("E"."DEPARTMENT_ID"="D"."DEPARTMENT_ID")

9. Access Plan

10. What Influences the Access Plan
COST
Different Costs
Data volume and statistics
Bind variable types
RULE
•Order of the tables in the FROM clause
•Order of the join conditions in the WHERE/JOIN clause
•Collected Statistics
•Rules
GENERAL
•Different Schemas/Databases/Users
•Schema changes (usually changes in indexes) between the two operations.
•Initialization parameters - set globally or at session level
•Hints
•Indexed Columns inhibitors (+0 or ||'' )

11. Rules
•RBO Path 1: Single Row by Rowid
•RBO Path 2: Single Row by Cluster Join
•RBO Path 3: Single Row by Hash Cluster Key with Unique or Primary Key
•RBO Path 4: Single Row by Unique or Primary Key
•RBO Path 5: Clustered Join
•RBO Path 6: Hash Cluster Key
•RBO Path 7: Indexed Cluster Key
•RBO Path 8: Composite Index
•RBO Path 9: Single-Column Indexes
•RBO Path 10: Bounded Range Search on Indexed Columns
•RBO Path 11: Unbounded Range Search on Indexed Columns
•RBO Path 12: Sort Merge Join
•RBO Path 13: MAX or MIN of Indexed Column
•RBO Path 14: ORDER BY on Indexed Column
•RBO Path 15: Full Table Scan

12. Cost
Query Transformer
Four different query transformation techniques:
•View Merging
•Predicate Pushing
•Subquery Unnesting
•Query Rewrite with Materialized Views
Estimator
Three different types of measures:
•Selectivity
•Cardinality
•Cost
Plan Generator

13. Sample Environment Parameters
Database Version = 9.2.0.8.0
Compatible = 9.2.0.0.0
Optimizer Features Enable = 9.2.0
Optimizer Mode = CHOOSE
Database Triggers => No (on_logon)

14. How to use Cost
•Gather index Statistics
BEGIN •Set for session in SQL*PLUS
SYS.DBMS_STATS.GATHER_INDEX_STATS ( ALTER SESSION SET OPTIMIZER_MODE=ALL_ROWS;
OwnName => ‘HR'
,IndName => 'IDX_JOB_3' •Use Hint /*+ ALL_ROWS */
,Estimate_Percent => NULL Remove indexed columns inhibitors (+0 or ||'' )
,Degree => NULL
,No_Invalidate => FALSE); SELECT /*+ ALL_ROWS */ column1, column2, ...
END;
/
•Show Access Plan & Statistics in SQL*PLUS
•Set for session in a program SET AUTOTRACE ON EXPLAIN STATISTICS;
BEGIN
EXECUTE_IMMEDIATE(‘ALTER SESSION SET OPTIMIZER_MODE = ALL_ROWS’); •Study the Access Plan
END;
/

15. Improve Performance in SQL*Plus
SYSTEM Variables Influencing SQL*Plus Performance
SET ARRAYSIZE
Sets the number of rows, called a batch, that SQL*Plus will fetch from the database at one time. Valid values are 1 to 5000. A large value increases the
efficiency of queries and subqueries that fetch many rows, but requires more memory. Values over approximately 100 provide little added performance.
ARRAYSIZE has no effect on the results of SQL*Plus operations other than increasing efficiency.
SET DEFINE OFF
Controls whether SQL*Plus parses scripts for substitution variables. If DEFINE is OFF, SQL*Plus does not parse scripts for substitution variables. If your
script does not use substitution variables, setting DEFINE OFF may result in some performance gains.
SET FLUSH OFF
Controls when output is sent to the user's display device. OFF allows the host operating system to buffer output which may improve performance by
reducing the amount of program input and output.
Use OFF only when you run a script that does not require user interaction and whose output you do not need to see until the script finishes running.
SET SERVEROUTPUT
Controls whether SQL*Plus checks for and displays DBMS output. If SERVEROUTPUT is OFF, SQL*Plus does not check for DBMS output and does not
display output after applicable SQL or PL/SQL statements. Suppressing this output checking and display may result in performance gains.
SET TRIMOUT ON
Determines whether SQL*Plus allows trailing blanks at the end of each displayed line. ON removes blanks at the end of each line, which may improve
performance especially when you access SQL*Plus from a slow communications device. TRIMOUT ON does not affect spooled output.
SET TRIMSPOOL ON
Determines whether SQL*Plus allows trailing blanks at the end of each spooled line. ON removes blanks at the end of each line, which may improve
performance especially when you access SQL*Plus from a slow communications device. TRIMSPOOL ON does not affect terminal output.

16. Improve Performance in SQL*Plus
•Improve performance and control in SQL*Plus
ALTER SESSION SET optimizer_mode=ALL_ROWS;
SET DEFINE OFF
SET FLUSH OFF
SET SERVEROUTPUT OFF
SET TRIMOUT ON
SET TRIMSPOOL ON
-- ARRAYSIZE DEFAULT = 15
SET ARRAYSIZE 5000
SET TIMI ON;
PROMPT SETA DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO.SET_MODULE
BEGIN
DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO.SET_MODULE(‘XXXXXXXXX','');
END;
/

17. POC
WITHOUT PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS USING PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS
dbtest> SET PAGESIZE 9999 dbtest> SET PAGESIZE 9999
dbtest> SET TIMI ON; dbtest> --Improve performance and control in SQL*Plus
dbtest> SELECT USERNAME FROM DBA_USERS; dbtest> ALTER SESSION SET optimizer_mode=ALL_ROWS;
USERNAME Session altered.
------------------------------ Elapsed: 00:00:00.48
... dbtest> SET DEFINE OFF
... dbtest> SET FLUSH OFF
... dbtest> SET SERVEROUTPUT OFF
dbtest> SET TRIMOUT ON
41632 rows selected. dbtest> SET TRIMSPOOL ON
Elapsed: 00:22:28.75 dbtest> SET ARRAYSIZE 5000
dbtest> SPOOL OFF; dbtest> SET TIMI ON;
dbtest> PROMPT SETA DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO.SET_MODULE
SETA DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO.SET_MODULE
dbtest> BEGIN
2 DBMS_APPLICATION_INFO.SET_MODULE('XXXXXXXXX','');
3 END;
4 /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Elapsed: 00:00:00.48
dbtest> SELECT USERNAME FROM DBA_USERS;
USERNAME
------------------------------
....
....
41632 rows selected.
Elapsed: 00:00:27.07
dbtest> SPOOL OFF;

18. Training & Reference
Resources at Oracle Website
•Performance Tuning Guide and Reference
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B10500_01/server.920/a96533/toc.htm
•SQL Reference
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B10500_01/server.920/a96540/toc.htm
•PL/SQL User's Guide and Reference
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B10500_01/appdev.920/a96624/toc.htm

19. Thank you
Carlos Oliveira / May 31, 2012