What is an Index?

To explain in plain English, an Index could be considered as a unique bookmark to a database cell (of those columns which are indexed). For each cell in an indexed column, there will be a unique identifier, which is known as the index. Indexes are stored in the Index segments in Oracle database (unless it is an Index Organized table (IOT) which we are not discussing here). In Oracle 9i, Indexes contain an entry for each cell value that appears in the indexed column(s) of the table or cluster. So, when an index is used in a query, Oracle Engine first searches through the indexes and reaches the index of the particular cell value, it is searching for. Then it goes to the table and fetches only that particular value. Thus we could avoid Full table scans. Thus an index is a performance-tuning method which allows faster retrieval of records. Oracle supports different types of indexes: B-Tree indexes (Normal) Bitmap indexes Partitioned indexes Function-based indexes Domain indexes Here we are going to discuss about B-Tree and Bitmap Indexes.

I. Oracle - Binary Tree Index

As the name suggests it makes use of the B-Tree parsing method to find the value being searched for. When it gets a value to be searched, it gets the nearest possible index value. Then it goes to the left node if the value it lesser or to the right if the value is higher. It goes on doing this until it reaches the leaf node which contains the value it is searching for.

Fig 1.1 Binary Tree How to Create an Index? CREATE INDEX IDX_NAME ON TABLE_NAME (Col_nam1,Col_nam2, ) COMPUTE STATISTICS ; --optional

** Note: by default, Oracle creates B-tree indexes How to Rename an Index?

ALTER INDEX RENAME TO IDX_NAME NEW_IDX_NAME;

How to Collect Statistics on an Index

ALTER INDEX IDX_NAME COMPUTE STATISTICS;

How to Drop an Index

DROP INDEX IDX_NAME;

II. Oracle - Bitmap Index: Oracle Bitmap Indexes are different from Standard B-Tree Indexes in the way they store the information about the indexes. Bitmap Indexes stores the information about the value in bits; with 0s and 1s; thus called Bitmaps. Something like this:

Fig 1.2 Show how Bitmap Indexes are stored.

Bitmap Index creates a two-dimensional array with one column for every row in the table being indexed. If the value being indexed is found in the row, it will specify a 1 and if not found then a 0 . So while searching, Oracle takes only the information from those rows which shows a 1 in the Bitmap Index. That means, the records which are pointed by the 1 s in the Index, have got the searched/indexed value And from a performance point of view, during the data retrieval time,

Oracle decompresses the bitmap into the RAM data buffers so that it can rapidly scan for matching values. These matching values are the given to the Oracle engine in the form of a ROWID list, and ROWIDs as we know are unique identifiers to records/rows.
Q. How to Create a Bitmap Index? CREATE BITMAP INDEX ON COMPUTE STATISTICS ; IDX_NAME TABLE_NAME (Col_nam1,Col_nam2, )

B-Tree Versus - Bitmap Indexes

These are some differences between B-Tree and Bitmap Indexes in Structure and performance and their usage. 1. DML Operations: If you have too much DML operations (insert/update/delete) on a table on which the columns are indexed, it is better to use B-Tree indexes. For eg: if you work on a batch processing environment, then it is obvious that you would have frequent DML operations on the tables involved. Updating bitmapped indexes consumes lot of resources. So, it is better to use Bitmap Indexes on columns of Tables which are updated/inserted/deleted less frequently . 2. Performance Bitmap Indexes have highly compressed structure, making them fast to read and their structure makes it possible for the system to combine multiple indexes together for fast access to the underlying table/s. 3. Structure: Compressed structure in Bitmap Indexes makes it faster to read from disk; but utilises more CPU to decompress the information.Uncompressed structure in B-Tree involves a lesser CPU load compared to Bitmap but it requires more bandwidth to read since it is uncompressed data. 4. Cardinality:Cardinality means, the ratio of distinct values to the total number of records. So, a low cardinality means, distinct values are very less. In such a scenario, Bitmap indexes are considered to be more efficient than BTree indexes.

If the application is running very slow? At what points you need to go about the database in order to improve the performance? Answer : For improving performance, we need to check the sql statement blocks , because for every sql satement execution transform to sql engine and come back to plsql engine that process takes more time to process the plsql block. Is there a limit on the size of a PL/SQL block? Answer: Currently, the maximum parsed/compiled size of a PL/SQL block is 64K and the maximum code size is 100K.You can run the following select statement to query the size of an existing package or procedure. SQL> select * from dba_object_size where name = 'procedure_name' Describe Oracle database's physical and logical structure ? Answer:

Physical : Data files, Redo Log files, Control file. Logical : Tables, Views, Tablespaces, etc.