Each partition of a table or index must have the same logical attributes, such as column names, data types, and constraints.

For example, all partitions in a table share the same column and constraint definitions. However, each partition can have separate physical attributes, such as the tablespace to which it belongs.

A partitioned table consists of one or more partitions, which are managed individually and can operate independently of the other partitions.

A table is either partitioned or nonpartitioned. Even if a partitioned table consists of only one partition, this table is different from a nonpartitioned table, which cannot have partitions added to it.

A partitioned index is an index that, like a partitioned table, has been divided into smaller and more manageable pieces.

Global indexes are partitioned independently of the table on which they are created, whereas local indexes are automatically linked to the partitioning method for a table. Like partitioned tables, partitioned indexes improve manageability, availability, performance, and scalability.

The following graphic shows index partitioning options.

Figure 6-2 Index Partitioning Options

Description of "Figure 6-2 Index Partitioning Options"

A partial index is an index that is correlated with the indexing properties of an associated partitioned table.

The correlation enables you to specify which table partitions are indexed. Partial indexes provide the following advantages:

• Table partitions that are not indexed avoid consuming unnecessary index storage space.

• Performance of loads and queries can improve.

  Before Oracle Database 12c, an exchange partition operation required a physical update of an associated global index to retain it as usable. Starting with Oracle Database 12c, if the partitions involved in a partition maintenance operation are not part of a partial global index, then the index remains usable without requiring any global index maintenance.

• If you index only some table partitions at index creation, and if you later index other partitions, then you can reduce the sort space required by index creation.

You can turn indexing on or off for the individual partitions of a table. A partial local index does not have usable index partitions for all table partitions that have indexing turned off. A global index, whether partitioned or not, excludes the data from all partitions that have indexing turned off. The database does not support partial indexes for indexes that enforce unique constraints.

Figure 6-5 shows the same global index as in Figure 6-4, except that the global index is partial. Table partitions SALES_1998 and SALES_2000 have the indexing property set to OFF, so the partial global index does not index them.

Figure 6-5 Partial Global Partitioned Index

Description of "Figure 6-5 Partial Global Partitioned Index"

Unlike a table, a view is not allocated storage space, nor does a view contain data. Rather, a view is defined by a query that extracts or derives data from the base tables referenced by the view. Because a view is based on other objects, it requires no storage other than storage for the query that defines the view in the data dictionary.

A view has dependencies on its referenced objects, which are automatically handled by the database. For example, if you drop and re-create a base table of a view, then the database determines whether the new base table is acceptable to the view definition.

A join view has multiple tables or views in its FROM clause.

In the following example, the staff_dept_10_30 view joins the employees and departments tables, including only employees in departments 10 or 30:

CREATE VIEW staff_dept_10_30 AS
SELECT employee_id, last_name, job_id, e.department_id
FROM   employees e, departments d
WHERE  e.department_id IN (10, 30)
AND    e.department_id = d.department_id;

An updatable join view, also called a modifiable join view, involves two or more base tables or views and permits DML operations. An updatable view contains multiple tables in the top-level FROM clause of the SELECT statement and is not restricted by the WITH READ ONLY clause.

To be inherently updatable, a view must meet several criteria. For example, a general rule is that an INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE operation on a join view can modify only one base table at a time. The following query of the USER_UPDATABLE_COLUMNS data dictionary view shows that the staff_dept_10_30 view is updatable:

SQL> SELECT TABLE_NAME, COLUMN_NAME, UPDATABLE 
  2  FROM   USER_UPDATABLE_COLUMNS 
  3  WHERE  TABLE_NAME = 'STAFF_DEPT_10_30';
 
TABLE_NAME                     COLUMN_NAME                    UPD
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ---
STAFF_DEPT_10_30               EMPLOYEE_ID                    YES
STAFF_DEPT_10_30               LAST_NAME                      YES
STAFF_DEPT_10_30               JOB_ID                         YES
STAFF_DEPT_10_30               DEPARTMENT_ID                  YES

All updatable columns of a join view must map to columns of a key-preserved table, which is a table in which each row of the underlying table appears at most one time in the query output. In the staff_dept_10_30 view, department_id is the primary key of the departments table, so each row from the employees table appears at most once in the result set, making the employees table key-preserved. The departments table is not key-preserved because each of its rows may appear many times in the result set.

Just as a view is a virtual table, an object view is a virtual object table. Each row in the view is an object, which is an instance of an object type. An object type is a user-defined data type.

You can retrieve, update, insert, and delete relational data as if it were stored as an object type. You can also define views with columns that are object data types, such as objects, REFs, and collections (nested tables and VARRAYs).

Like relational views, object views can present only the data that database administrators want users to see. For example, an object view could present data about IT programmers but omit sensitive data about salaries. The following example creates an employee_type object and then the view it_prog_view based on this object:

CREATE TYPE employee_type AS OBJECT
(
  employee_id  NUMBER (6),
  last_name    VARCHAR2 (25),
  job_id       VARCHAR2 (10)
);
/

CREATE VIEW it_prog_view OF employee_type
  WITH OBJECT IDENTIFIER (employee_id) AS 
SELECT  e.employee_id, e.last_name, e.job_id
FROM    employees e
WHERE   job_id = 'IT_PROG';

Object views are useful in prototyping or transitioning to object-oriented applications because the data in the view can be taken from relational tables and accessed as if the table were defined as an object table. You can run object-oriented applications without converting existing tables to a different physical structure.

Materialized views share some characteristics of indexes and nonmaterialized views.

Materialized views are similar to indexes in the following ways:

• They contain actual data and consume storage space.

• They can be refreshed when the data in their master tables changes.

• They can improve performance of SQL execution when used for query rewrite operations.

• Their existence is transparent to SQL applications and users.

A materialized view is similar to a nonmaterialized view because it represents data in other tables and views. Unlike indexes, users can query materialized views directly using SELECT statements. Depending on the types of refresh that are required, the views can also be updated with DML statements.

The following example creates and populates a materialized aggregate view based on three master tables in the sh sample schema:

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW sales_mv AS 
  SELECT t.calendar_year, p.prod_id, SUM(s.amount_sold) AS sum_sales
  FROM   times t, products p, sales s
  WHERE  t.time_id = s.time_id 
  AND    p.prod_id = s.prod_id
  GROUP BY t.calendar_year, p.prod_id;

The following example drops table sales, which is a master table for sales_mv, and then queries sales_mv. The query selects data because the rows are stored (materialized) separately from the data in the master tables.

SQL> DROP TABLE sales;

Table dropped.

SQL> SELECT * FROM sales_mv WHERE ROWNUM < 4;
 
CALENDAR_YEAR    PROD_ID  SUM_SALES
------------- ---------- ----------
         1998         13  936197.53
         1998         26  567533.83
         1998         27  107968.24

A materialized view can be partitioned. You can define a materialized view on a partitioned table and one or more indexes on the materialized view.

The database maintains data in materialized views by refreshing them after changes to the base tables. The refresh method can be incremental or a complete refresh.

Query rewrite transforms a user request written in terms of master tables into a semantically equivalent request that includes materialized views.

When base tables contain large amounts of data, computing an aggregate or join is expensive and time-consuming. Because materialized views contain precomputed aggregates and joins, query rewrite can quickly answer queries using materialized views.

The query transformer transparently rewrites the request to use the materialized view, requiring no user intervention and no reference to the materialized view in the SQL statement. Because query rewrite is transparent, materialized views can be added or dropped without invalidating the SQL in the application code.

In general, rewriting queries to use materialized views rather than detail tables improves response time. The following figure shows the database generating an execution plan for the original and rewritten query and choosing the lowest-cost plan.

Figure 6-9 Query Rewrite

Description of "Figure 6-9 Query Rewrite"

A sequence definition indicates general information about the sequence, including its name and whether the sequence ascends or descends.

A sequence definition also indicates:

• The interval between numbers

• Whether the database should cache sets of generated sequence numbers in memory

• Whether the sequence should cycle when a limit is reached

The following example creates the sequence customers_seq in the sample schema oe. An application could use this sequence to provide customer ID numbers when rows are added to the customers table.

CREATE SEQUENCE customers_seq
START WITH      1000
INCREMENT BY    1
NOCACHE
NOCYCLE;

The first reference to customers_seq.nextval returns 1000. The second returns 1001. Each subsequent reference returns a value 1 greater than the previous reference.

The same sequence generator can generate numbers for multiple tables.

The generator can create primary keys automatically and coordinate keys across multiple rows or tables. For example, a sequence can generate primary keys for an orders table and a customers table.

The sequence generator is useful in multiuser environments for generating unique numbers without the overhead of disk I/O or transaction locking. For example, two users simultaneously insert new rows into the orders table. By using a sequence to generate unique numbers for the order_id column, neither user has to wait for the other to enter the next available order number. The sequence automatically generates the correct values for each user.

Each user that references a sequence has access to his or her current sequence number, which is the last sequence generated in the session. A user can issue a statement to generate a new sequence number or use the current number last generated by the session. After a statement in a session generates a sequence number, it is available only to this session. Individual sequence numbers can be skipped if they were generated and used in a transaction that was ultimately rolled back.

A dimension table is a logical structure that defines hierarchical (parent/child) relationships between pairs of columns or column sets.

For example, a dimension can indicate that within a row the city column implies the value of the state column, and the state column implies the value of the country column.

Within a customer dimension, customers could roll up to city, state, country, subregion, and region. Data analysis typically starts at higher levels in the dimensional hierarchy and gradually drills down if the situation warrants such analysis.

Each value at the child level is associated with one and only one value at the parent level. A hierarchical relationship is a functional dependency from one level of a hierarchy to the next level in the hierarchy.

A dimension has no data storage assigned to it. Dimensional information is stored in dimension tables, whereas fact information is stored in a fact table.

You create dimensions with the CREATE DIMENSION SQL statement.

This statement specifies:

• Multiple LEVEL clauses, each of which identifies a column or column set in the dimension

• One or more HIERARCHY clauses that specify the parent/child relationships between adjacent levels

• Optional ATTRIBUTE clauses, each of which identifies an additional column or column set associated with an individual level

The following statement was used to create the customers_dim dimension in the sample schema sh:

CREATE DIMENSION customers_dim 
   LEVEL customer   IS (customers.cust_id)
   LEVEL city       IS (customers.cust_city) 
   LEVEL state      IS (customers.cust_state_province) 
   LEVEL country    IS (countries.country_id) 
   LEVEL subregion  IS (countries.country_subregion) 
   LEVEL region     IS (countries.country_region) 
   HIERARCHY geog_rollup (
      customer      CHILD OF
      city          CHILD OF 
      state         CHILD OF 
      country       CHILD OF 
      subregion     CHILD OF 
      region 
   JOIN KEY (customers.country_id) REFERENCES country )
   ATTRIBUTE customer DETERMINES
   (cust_first_name, cust_last_name, cust_gender, 
    cust_marital_status, cust_year_of_birth, 
    cust_income_level, cust_credit_limit) 
   ATTRIBUTE country DETERMINES (countries.country_name);

The columns in a dimension can come either from the same table (denormalized) or from multiple tables (fully or partially normalized). For example, a normalized time dimension can include a date table, a month table, and a year table, with join conditions that connect each date row to a month row, and each month row to a year row. In a fully denormalized time dimension, the date, month, and year columns are in the same table. Whether normalized or denormalized, the hierarchical relationships among the columns must be specified in the CREATE DIMENSION statement.