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Oracle® Database PL/SQL Packages and Types Reference
11g Release 2 (11.2)

Part Number E10577-03
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243 Expression Filter Types

The Expression Filter feature provides a set of predefined types and public synonyms for these types. Most of these types are used for configuring index parameters with the Expression Filter procedural APIs. The EXF$TABLE_ALIAS type is used to support expressions defined on one or more database tables.

See Also:

Oracle Database Rules Manager and Expression Filter Developer's Guide for more information.

This chapter contains the following topics:


Summary of Expression Filter Types

Table 243-1 describes the Expression Filter object types.

All the values and names passed to the types defined in this chapter are not case sensitive. To preserve the case, enclose the values with double quotation marks.

Table 243-1 Expression Filter Object Types

Object Type Name Description

EXF$ATTRIBUTE

Specifies the stored and indexed attributes for the Expression Filter indexes

EXF$ATTRIBUTE_LIST

Specifies a list of stored and indexed attributes when configuring index parameters

EXF$INDEXOPER

Specifies a list of common operators in predicates with a stored or an indexed attribute

EXF$TABLE_ALIAS

Indicates a special form of elementary attribute used to manage expressions defined on one or more database tables

EXF$TEXT

Associates preferences to a text attribute in an attribute set or an event structure

EXF$XPATH_TAG

Configures an XML element or an XML attribute for indexing a set of XPath predicates

EXF$XPATH_TAGS

Specifies a list of XML tags when configuring the Expression Filter index parameters



EXF$ATTRIBUTE

The EXF$ATTRIBUTE type is used to handle stored and indexed attributes for the Expression Filter indexes.

Syntax

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE EXF$ATTRIBUTE AS OBJECT attr_name    VARCHAR2(350),
                                               attr_oper    EXF$INDEXOPER,
                                               attr_indexed VARCHAR2(5);

Attributes

Table 243-2 EXF$ATTRIBUTE Attributes

Attribute Description

attr_name

The arithmetic expression that constitutes the stored or indexed attribute

attr_oper

The list of common operators in the predicates with the attribute. Default value: EXF$INDEXOPER('all')

attr_indexed

TRUE if the attribute is indexed, else FALSE. Default value: FALSE.


Usage Notes

Examples

A stored attribute with no preference on the list of common operators is represented as follows:

exf$attribute (attr_name => 'HorsePower(Model, Year)')

An indexed attribute is represented as follows:

exf$attribute (attr_name => 'HorsePower(Model, Year)', 
               attr_indexed => 'TRUE')

An indexed attribute with a list of common operators is represented as follows:

exf$attribute (attr_name => 'HorsePower(Model, Year)', 
               attr_oper => exf$indexoper('=','<','>','>=','<='), 
               attr_indexed => 'TRUE')

EXF$ATTRIBUTE_LIST

The EXF$ATTRIBUTE_LIST type specifies a list of stored and indexed attributes while configuring the index parameters.

Syntax

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE EXF$ATTRIBUTE_LIST as VARRAY(490) of exf$attribute;

Attributes

None.

Usage Notes

Examples

A list of stored and indexed attributes can be represented as follows:

exf$attribute_list (
       exf$attribute (attr_name => 'Model',            
                      attr_oper => exf$indexoper('='),
                      attr_indexed => 'TRUE'),         
       exf$attribute (attr_name => 'Price', 
                      attr_oper => exf$indexoper('all'), 
                      attr_indexed => 'TRUE'), 
       exf$attribute (attr_name => 'HorsePower(Model, Year)', 
                      attr_oper => exf$indexoper('=','<','>','>=','<='), 
                      attr_indexed => 'FALSE')         
    )

EXF$INDEXOPER

The EXF$INDEXOPER type specifies the list of common operators in predicates with a stored or an indexed attribute.

Syntax

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE EXFSYS.EXF$INDEXOPER as VARRAY(20) of VARCHAR2(15);

The values for the EXF$INDEXOPER array are expected to be from the list in the following table:

Value Predicate Description
= Equality predicates
> Greater than predicates
< Less than predicates
>= Greater than or equal to predicates
<= Less than or equal to predicates
!= or <> or ^= Not equal to predicates
IS NULL IS NULL predicates
IS NOT NULL IS NOT NULL predicates
ALL All the operators listed in this table starting with the equality predicate through the IS NOT NULL predicate
NVL Predicates with NVL (equality) operator
LIKE Predicates with LIKE operator
BETWEEN BETWEEN predicates

Attributes

None.

Usage Notes

Examples

An attribute with a list of common operators is represented as follows:

exf$attribute (attr_name => 'HorsePower(Model, Year)', 
               attr_oper => exf$indexoper('=','<','>','>=','<=', 'between'), 
               attr_indexed => 'TRUE')

EXF$TABLE_ALIAS

A EXF$TABLE_ALIAS type is a special form of elementary attribute that can be included in the attribute set. These attributes manage expressions defined on one or more database tables.

Syntax

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE EXF$TABLE_ALIAS AS OBJECT table_name VARCHAR2(70);

Attributes

Table 243-3 EXF$TABLE_ALIAS Attribute

Attribute Description

table_name

Name of the table with a possible schema extension


Usage Notes

Examples

For a set of expressions defined on database tables, the corresponding table alias attributes are configured as follows:

BEGIN
  DBMS_EXPFIL.ADD_ELEMENTARY_ATTRIBUTE (
                               attr_set  => 'HRAttrSet',
                               attr_name => 'EMP',
                               tab_alias => exf$table_alias('SCOTT.EMP'));
  DBMS_EXPFIL.ADD_ELEMENTARY_ATTRIBUTE (
                               attr_set  => 'HRAttrSet',
                               attr_name => 'DEPT',
                               tab_alias => exf$table_alias('DEPT'));
END;
/

The Expression column using the previous attribute set can store expressions of form EMP.JOB = 'Clerk' and EMP.NAME = 'Joe', where JOB and NAME are the names of the columns in the SCOTT.EMP table.


EXF$TEXT

A EXF$TEXT type associates preferences to a text attribute in an attribute set or an event structure.

Syntax

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE EXFSYS.EXF$TEXT AS OBJECT(preferences VARCHAR2(1000));

Attributes

Table 243-4 EXF$TEXT Attribute

Attribute Description

preferences

Text preference specification, such as LEXER, CLASSIFIER, and WORDLIST


Usage Notes

Examples

A text predicate with a LEXER and WORDLIST preferences can be created using the following instance of EXF$TEXT object as follows:

EXF$TEXT ('LEXER insrpt_lexer WORDLIST insrpt_wordlist');

EXF$XPATH_TAG

The EXF$XPATH_TAG type configures an XML element or an XML attribute for indexing a set of XPath predicates.

Syntax

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE EXF$XPATH_TAG AS OBJECT tag_name    VARCHAR2(350),
                                               tag_indexed VARCHAR2(5),
                                               tag_type    VARCHAR2(30);

Attributes

Table 243-5 EXF$XPATH_TAG Attributes

Attribute Description

tag_name

Name of the XML element or attribute. The name for an XML attribute is formatted as: <ElementName>@<AttributeName>. Optionally, the element name can be prefixed with its namespace URL as in <Namespace URL>:<ElementName>@<AttributeName>.

tag_indexed

TRUE if XML tag is indexed; otherwise FALSE.

Default:

TRUE if the tag is a positional filter.

FALSE if the tag is a value filter.

tag_type

Datatype for the value in the case of value filter. NULL for positional filters.


Usage Notes

Examples

An XML element can be configured as a positional filter and be indexed using the following instance of the EXF$XPATH_TAG type.

exf$xpath_tag(tag_name    => 'stereo',       --- XML element
              tag_indexed => 'TRUE',         --- indexed predicate group
              tag_type    => null)           --- positional filter

An XML attribute can be configured as a value filter and be indexed using the following type instance.

exf$xpath_tag(tag_name    => 'stereo@make',  --- XML attribute
              tag_indexed => 'TRUE',         --- indexed predicate group
              tag_type    => 'VARCHAR(15)')  --- value filter

The following commands configure the two filters shown previously using the namespace URL for the corresponding elements.

exf$xpath_tag(tag_name => 'http://www.auto.com/car.xsd:stereo', 
              tag_indexed => 'TRUE', --- indexed predicate group
              tag_type => null)      --- positional filter

exf$xpath_tag(tag_name => 'http://www.auto.com/car.xsd:stereo@make'
              tag_indexed => 'TRUE',     --- indexed predicate group
              tag_type => 'VARCHAR(15)') --- value filter

EXF$XPATH_TAGS

The EXF$XPATH_TAGS type specifies a list of XML tags while configuring the Expression Filter index parameters.

Syntax

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE EXF$XPATH_TAGS as VARRAY(490) of EXF$XPATH_TAG;

Attributes

None.

Usage Notes

Examples

A list of XML tags configured as positional and value filters can be represented as follows:

exf$xpath_tags(
           exf$xpath_tag(tag_name    => 'stereo@make',  --- XML attribute
                         tag_indexed => 'TRUE',
                         tag_type    => 'VARCHAR(15)'), --- value filter
           exf$xpath_tag(tag_name    => 'stereo',       --- XML element
                         tag_indexed => 'FALSE',
                         tag_type    => null),          --- positional filter
           exf$xpath_tag(tag_name    => 'memory',       --- XML element
                         tag_indexed => 'TRUE',
                         tag_type    => 'VARCHAR(10)')  --- value filter
          )