I work with SQL since decades, and I think to have some practical experience with writing SQL queries on Oracle databases. So why should I buy a book about practical Oracle SQL? If you are in a similar situation like me, read this book review.
Although Query Rewrite on Materialized Views is a powerful feature which is available in Oracle databases for a long time, it is rarely used. Many developers and database administrators don’t know about it or do not use it because they think it is too complex. In this blog post, I try to reduce the concerns about complexity with some general design tips for Query Rewrite.
If you work with Data Vault for a data warehouse running in an Oracle database, I strongly recommend to use Oracle 12.2 or higher. Why that? Since Oracle 12c Release 2, join elimination works for more than one join column. This is essential for queries on a Data Vault schema.
NLS (National Language Support) parameters are very useful for multilingual applications in an Oracle database. But it is important to understand their impact on query performance. I was aware that NLS is important for indexes, but never thought about its impact on partitioning.
Oracle 19c provides a set of new SQL functions for bitmap operations. They allow fast computation of COUNT(DISTINCT) expressions. What is the purpose of these functions? The Oracle documentation is very sparse, but at least it tells us that the main focus are Materialized Views on aggregated data. Let’s have a detailed look at this new feature.
Materialized Views are often used in data warehouses to improve query performance on aggregated data. But what if it takes too long to refresh the materialized views? Here are some basic rules to improve refresh performance.
The Autonomous Data Warehouse Cloud (ADWC) is a self-configuring, fast, secure and scalable platform for data warehouses. Does this mean we don’t have to take care anymore about performance of our ETL processes? Which performance tips are still important for us, and where can we hand over the responsibility to ADWC? A revised version of an old blog post, with regard to Oracle’s Data Warehouse Cloud solution.
Global temporary tables (or private temporary tables, if you use Oracle 18c) are a practical feature to be used for SQL queries with multiple steps, for example complex reports in a data warehouse. If you want to use them, some details must be considered.
Complex SQL statements are hard to understand – not only for us, but for the query optimizer, too. Sometimes, it is a good idea to write a simpler SQL query to do the same work. Here a nice story about a performance improvement by rewriting the SQL statement.
Direct-Path INSERT is a very efficient way to load data into data warehouse tables. The load performance can even be improved with NOLOGGING on the target table. In Oracle 12c Release 2, this is even possible for Oracle Data Guard environments. But is it a good idea?
