Hints in Oracle

What are Hints?

Hints give specific information that we know about our data and application. A way to override the default query optimization in the DBMS Influence the execution plan of query

Why Use Hints?

Oracle optimizer may not always choose the best execution plan Using hints may improve the performance by changing the execution plan oracle takes.

Using Hints
Hints can be used in the Select, Delete, and Update clauses. In each statement, the hint goes directly after the Select, Delete, or Update keyword. A few hints use Insert. Hints are placed in the /*+ */ tag, where the hint goes after the + sign Ex: SELECT /*+ ALL_ROWS */ From

Types of Hints
Approach hints Access hints Join hints Misc. hints

Approach Hints
ALL_ROWS: Minimizes total resource consumption. Results will be returned only after all processing has been completed FIRST_ROWS(n): Minimized response time, or minimal resource usage to return the first n rows.

Access Hints
FULL(table): Chooses a full table scan for the table, even if there is an index available. INDEX(table [index [index]...]): Chooses an Index scan for the table.

Index Hint Example

CIS Department has far more males than females SELECT /*+ FULL(s) */ id, name FROM Student s WHERE sex = m; SELECT /*+ Index(s sex_index) */ id, name FROM Student s WHERE sex = f;

Join hints
ORDERED: tables are joined in the order in which they appear in the FROM clause. LEADING(table): specified table is the first table used in the join order. USE_HASH(table [table] ): Tables are joined using a hash join. Smaller table is used to make a hash table on join key. The larger table is scanned using hash table to find joined rows.

Join Hints cont.

USE_NL(table [table]): Joins tables using nested loops join, using specified table as inner join. For every row in outer table, oracle accesses every row in inner table. USE_MERGE(table [table]): Joins tables using a sort-merge join. Sorted list are made and then merged together. Best if tables are already sorted.

Misc. Hints
APPEND: Data is appended to the end of table, rather then using existing space. CACHE(table): Blocks received are placed at the most recently used end of the LRU list in the buffer cache when a full table scan is preformed. NOCACHE(table): Blocks received are placed at the least recently used end of the LRU list in the buffer cache.

Sources
Oracle documentation at: http://oracle.cis.ksu.edu/oradocs/index.htm