Different Type of Indexes

• B-Trees (traditional) indexes

• Hash-cluster
• Bitmap indexes
• Index-Organized Tables
• Reverse-Key Indexes

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 Create Index command
• Create index <iName> on
<tname> (<col_name>);

• Create index cidx on orders (cid);

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 Why do we create an index ?
(OLTP x Data Warehouse)

• A) To speed up query (SELECT) ?

• B) To speed up data entry (insert/update/delete) ?
• C) All of the above ?

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 Indexes (Defaults)
• Anytime a PK is created, an index is
automatically created.
• Anytime when the type of index is not
specificied, the type of index created is
a B-Trees.

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 B-Tree (Balanced Tree)
• Most popular type of index structure for any
programming language or database.

• When you don’t know what to do, the best

option is usually a B-Tree. They are flexible
and perform well (not very well) in several
scenarios.
• It is really the B+ tree or B* tree
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 B-Trees (continued)
• One node corresponds to one block/page
(minimum disk I-O).
• Non-Leaf nodes(n keys, n+1 pointers)
• Leaf-Nodes (contain n entries, where each
entry has an index and a pointer to a data
block). Also, each node has a pointer to
next node.
• All leaves are at the same height.
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 Good Indexing (B-Tree)
Candidates
• Table must be reasonably large
• Field is queried by frequently
• Field has a high cardinality (don’t index by
sex, where the cardinality is 2!!).
• Badly balanced trees may inhibit
performance. Destroying and re-creating
index may improve performance.
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 Bitmap Index
• Bitmap indexes contain the key value and a
bitmap listing the value of 0 or 1 (yes/no)
for each row indicating whether the row
contains that value or not.

• May be a good option for indexing fields

that have low cardinality (opposite of B-
trees).
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 Bitmap Index (cont.)
• Syntax: Create Bitmap index ….
• Bitmap index works better with equality tests = or
in (not with < or > )
• Bitmap index maintenance can be expensive; an
individual bit may not be locked; a single update
locks a large portion of index.
• Bitmap indexes are best in read-only
datawarehouse situations

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 Hash Indexing
• B-trees and Bitmap index keys are used to
find rows requiring I/O to process index
• Hash gets rows with a key based algorithm
• Rows are stored based on a hashed value
• Index size should be known at index
creation
• Example:
– create index cidx on orders (cid) hashed;

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 Hash Index work best with
• Very-high cardinality columns
• Only equal (=) tests are used
• Index values do not change
• Number of rows are known ahead of time

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 Index-Organized Tables
• Table data is incorporated into the B-Tree
using the PK as the index.
• Table data is always in order of PK. Many
sorts can be avoided.
• Especially useful for “lookup” type tables
• Index works best when there are few (and
small) columns in your table other than the
PK.
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 Reverse Key Indexes
• Key ‘1234’ becomes ‘4321’, etc.
• Only efficient for few scenarios envolving
parallel processing and a hughe amount of
data.
• By reversing key values, index blocks
might be more evenly distributed reducing
the likelihood of densely or sparsely
populated indexes.

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 Conclusions on Indexes
• For high-cardinality key values, B-Tree
indexes are usually best.
• B-Trees work with all types of comparisons
and gracefully shrink and grow as table
changes.
• For low cardinality read-only environments,
Bitmaps may be a good option.

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 Query Optimizer
• A query optimizer parsers your SQL/Query
into a sequence of relational algebra
operations, determining an execution plan.
• The query optimizer figures out the best
execution plan based on rules of thumb and
information provided in the Data Dictionary
(System catalog).

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 Oracle Query Optimizer
• Up to version 6, Oracle Used a Rule Based
Optimizer. After version 6, Oracle offered
the Cost Based and the Rule Based
Optimizer. The default is now the Cost
Based Optimizer.

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 Query Optimizer
• To view how the query plan you must use
either set autotrace on or explain plan. Set
autotrace on is much simpler. Explain plan
is a little bit more efficient, but more
complicated.

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 Typical SQL operations
(results of autotrace)
• TABLE ACCESS FULL
• TABLE ACCESS BY ROWID
• INDEX RANGE SCAN
• INDEX UNIQUE SCAN
• NESTED LOOPS

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• TABLE ACCESS FULL (full table scan):
Oracle will look at every row in the table to
find the requested information. This is
usually the slowest way to access a table.

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 TABLE ACCESS BY ROWID
Oracle will use the ROWID method
to find a row in the table.
ROWID is a special column detailing
an exact Oracle block where
the row can be found. This is the
fastest way to access a table (faster
than any index. Less flexible than any
index).

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 INDEX RANGE SCAN
Oracle will search an index for a
range of values. Usually, this even
occurs when a range or between
operation is specified by the query or
when only the leading columns in a
composite index are specified by the
where clause. Can perform well or
poorly, based on the size of the range
and the fragmentation of the index.).
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INDEX UNIQUE SCAN
Oracle will perform this operation
when the table’s primary key or
a unique key is part of the where
clause. This is the most efficient
way to search an index.

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 NESTED LOOPS
Indicates that a join operation is occurring.
Can perform well or poorly, depending on
performance on the index and table
operations of the individual tables being
joined.

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 Tuning SQL and PL/SQL
Queries
Sometimes, Same Query written more than
1000 ways.
Generating more than 100 execution plans.
Some firms have products that re-write
correctly written SQL queries
automatically.

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 ROWID
• SELECT ROWID, …
INTO :EMP_ROWID, …
FROM EMP
WHERE EMP.EMP_NO = 56722
FOR UPDATE;
UPDATE EMP SET EMP.NAME = …
WHERE ROWID = :EMP_ROWID;
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 ROWID (cont.)
• Fastest
• Less Flexible
• Are very useful for removing duplicates of
rows

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 SELECT STATEMENT
• Not exists in place of NOT IN
• Joins in place of Exists
• Avoid sub-selects
• Exists in place of distinct
• UNION in place of OR on an index column
• WHERE instead of ORDER BY

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