6 Using Partitioning in a Data Warehouse Environment

Basic Partition Pruning Techniques

The optimizer uses a wide variety of predicates for pruning. The three predicate types, equality, range, and IN-list, are the most commonly used cases of partition pruning. As an example, consider the following query:

SELECT SUM(amount_sold) day_sales
FROM sales
WHERE time_id = TO_DATE('02-JAN-1998', 'DD-MON-YYYY');

Because there is an equality predicate on the partitioning column of sales, this query will prune down to a single predicate and this will be reflected in the explain plan, as shown:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Id | Operation                | Name  | Rows| Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |Pstart| Pstop |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT         |       |     |       | 21 (100)   |          |      |       |
|   1 |  SORT AGGREGATE          |       | 1   | 13    |            |          |      |       |
|   2 |   PARTITION RANGE SINGLE |       | 485 | 6305  | 21 (10)    | 00:00:01 | 5    | 5     |
| * 3 |    TABLE ACCESS FULL     | SALES | 485 | 6305  | 21 (10)    | 00:00:01 | 5    | 5     |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
--------------------------------------------------- 
  3 - filter("TIME_ID"=TO_DATE('1998-01-02 00:00:00', 'yyyy-mm-dd hh24:mi:ss'))

Similarly, a range or an IN-list predicate on the time_id column and the optimizer would be used to prune to a set of partitions. The partitioning type plays a role in which predicates can be used. Range predicates cannot be used for pruning on hash partitioned tables while they can be used for all other partitioning strategies. However, on list-partitioned tables, range predicates may not map to a contiguous set of partitions. Equality and IN-list predicates can be used to prune with all the partitioning methods.

Advanced Partition Pruning Techniques

Oracle also prunes in the presence of more complex predicates or SQL statements involving partitioned tables. A common situation is when a partitioned table is joined to the subset of another table, limited by a WHERE condition. For example, consider the following query:

SELECT t.day_number_in_month, SUM(s.amount_sold)
FROM sales s, times t
WHERE s.time_id = t.time_id
  AND t.calendar_month_desc='2000-12'
GROUP BY t.day_number_in_month;

If the database performed a nested loop join with times on the right hand side, then the query would only access the partition corresponding to this row from the times table, so pruning would implicitly take place. But, if the database performed a hash or sort merge join, this would not be possible. If the table with the WHERE predicate is relatively small compared to the partitioned table, and the expected reduction of records or partitions for the partitioned table is significant, then the database will perform dynamic partition pruning using a recursive subquery. The decision whether or not to invoke subquery pruning is an internal cost-based decision of the optimizer.

A sample plan using a hash join operation would look like the following:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id| Operation                    |  Name |  Rows | Bytes| Cost (%CPU)|  Time  | Pstart | Pstop |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  0| SELECT STATEMENT             |       |       |      | 761 (100)  |        |        |       |
|  1|  HASH GROUP BY               |       |    20 | 640  | 761 (41)   |00:00:10|        |       |
|* 2|   HASH JOIN                  |       | 19153 | 598K | 749 (40)   |00:00:09|        |       |
|* 3|    TABLE ACCESS FULL         | TIMES |    30 |  570 |  17 (6)    |00:00:01|        |       |
|  4|     PARTITION RANGE SUBQUERY |       |  918K | 11M  |   655 (33) |00:00:08| KEY(SQ)|KEY(SQ)|
|  5|      TABLE ACCESS FULL       | SALES |   918 | 11M  |   655 (33) |00:00:08| KEY(SQ)|KEY(SQ)|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  2 - access("S"."TIME_ID"="T"."TIME_ID") 
  3 - filter("T"."CALENDAR_MONTH_DESC"='2000-12')

This plan shows that dynamic partition pruning occurred on the sales table using a subquery, as can be seen from the KEY(SQ) value in the PSTART and PSTOP columns.

Another example using advanced pruning is the following, which uses an OR predicate:

SELECT p.promo_name promo_name, (s.profit - p.promo_cost) profit
FROM
   promotions p,
   (SELECT
      promo_id,
      SUM(sales.QUANTITY_SOLD * (costs.UNIT_PRICE - costs.UNIT_COST)) profit
   FROM
      sales, costs
   WHERE
      ((sales.time_id BETWEEN TO_DATE('01-JAN-1998','DD-MON-YYYY',
                  'NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE = American') AND
      TO_DATE('01-JAN-1999','DD-MON-YYYY', 'NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE = American')
OR
      (sales.time_id BETWEEN TO_DATE('01-JAN-2001','DD-MON-YYYY',
                  'NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE = American') AND
      TO_DATE('01-JAN-2002','DD-MON-YYYY', 'NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE = American')))
      AND sales.time_id = costs.time_id
      AND sales.prod_id = costs.prod_id
   GROUP BY
      promo_id) s
WHERE s.promo_id = p.promo_id
ORDER BY profit
DESC;

This query joins the sales and costs tables in the sh sample schema. The sales table is partitioned by range on the column time_id. One of the conditions in the query are two predicates on time_id, which are combined with an OR operator. This OR predicate is used to prune the partitions in sales table and a single join between the sales and costs table is performed. The plan is as follows:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id| Operation               |  Name    |Rows |Bytes |TmpSp|Cost(%CPU)| Time    | Pstart| Pstop |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  0| SELECT STATEMENT        |          | 4   |  200 |     | 3556 (14)| 00:00:43|       |       |
|  1|  SORT ORDER BY          |          | 4   |  200 |     | 3556 (14)| 00:00:43|       |       |
|* 2|   HASH JOIN             |          | 4   |  200 |     | 3555 (14)| 00:00:43|       |       |
|  3|    TABLE ACCESS FULL    |PROMOTIONS| 503 | 16599|     |    16 (0)| 00:00:01|       |       |
|  4|    VIEW                 |          |   4 |   68 |     | 3538 (14)| 00:00:43|       |       |
|  5|     HASH GROUP BY       |          |   4 |  164 |     | 3538 (14)| 00:00:43|       |       |
|  6|      PARTITION RANGE OR |          | 314K|   12M|     |  3321 (9)| 00:00:40|KEY(OR)|KEY(OR)|
|* 7|       HASH JOIN         |          | 314K|   12M| 440K|  3321 (9)| 00:00:40|       |       |
|* 8|        TABLE ACCESS FULL| SALES    | 402K| 7467K|     |  400 (39)| 00:00:05|KEY(OR)|KEY(OR)|
|  9| TABLE ACCESS FULL       | COSTS    |82112| 1764K|     |   77 (24)| 00:00:01|KEY(OR)|KEY(OR)|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
--------------------------------------------------- 
  2 - access("S"."PROMO_ID"="P"."PROMO_ID") 
  7 - access("SALES"."TIME_ID"="COSTS"."TIME_ID" AND "SALES"."PROD_ID"="COSTS"."PROD_ID") 
  8 - filter("SALES"."TIME_ID"<=TO_DATE('1999-01-01 00:00:00', 'yyyy-mm-dd hh24:mi:ss') AND 
      "SALES"."TIME_ID">=TO_DATE('1998-01-01 00:00:00', 'yyyy-mm-dd hh24:mi:ss') OR 
      "SALES"."TIME_ID">=TO_DATE('2001-01-01 00:00:00', 'yyyy-mm-dd hh24:mi:ss') AND 
      "SALES"."TIME_ID"<=TO_DATE('2002-01-01 00:00:00', 'yyyy-mm-dd hh24:mi:ss'))

The database also does additional pruning when a column is range partitioned on multiple columns. As long as the database can guarantee that a particular predicate cannot be satisfied in a particular partition, the partition will be skipped. This allows the database to optimize cases where there are range predicates on more than one column or in the case where there are no predicates on a prefix of the partitioning columns.

Full Partition-Wise Joins

Full partition-wise joins can occur if two tables that are co-partitioned on the same key are joined in a query. The tables can be co-partitioned at the partition level, or at the subpartition level, or at a combination of partition and subpartition levels. Reference partitioning is an easy way to guarantee co-partitioning. Full partition-wise joins can be executed in serial and in parallel.

The following example shows a full partition-wise join on orders and order_items, in which the order_items table is reference partitioned.

CREATE TABLE orders
( order_id     NUMBER(12) NOT NULL
, order_date   DATE NOT NULL
, order_mode   VARCHAR2(8)
, order_status VARCHAR2(1)
, CONSTRAINT orders_pk PRIMARY KEY (order_id)
)
PARTITION BY RANGE (order_date)
( PARTITION p_before_jan_2006 VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('01-JAN-2006','dd-MON-yyyy'))
, PARTITION p_2006_jan VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('01-FEB-2006','dd-MON-yyyy'))
, PARTITION p_2006_feb VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('01-MAR-2006','dd-MON-yyyy'))
, PARTITION p_2006_mar VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('01-APR-2006','dd-MON-yyyy'))
, PARTITION p_2006_apr VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('01-MAY-2006','dd-MON-yyyy'))
, PARTITION p_2006_may VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('01-JUN-2006','dd-MON-yyyy'))
, PARTITION p_2006_jun VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('01-JUL-2006','dd-MON-yyyy'))
, PARTITION p_2006_jul VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('01-AUG-2006','dd-MON-yyyy'))
, PARTITION p_2006_aug VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('01-SEP-2006','dd-MON-yyyy'))
, PARTITION p_2006_sep VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('01-OCT-2006','dd-MON-yyyy'))
, PARTITION p_2006_oct VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('01-NOV-2006','dd-MON-yyyy'))
, PARTITION p_2006_nov VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('01-DEC-2006','dd-MON-yyyy'))
, PARTITION p_2006_dec VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('01-JAN-2007','dd-MON-yyyy'))
)
PARALLEL;

CREATE TABLE order_items
( order_id NUMBER(12) NOT NULL
, product_id NUMBER NOT NULL
, quantity NUMBER NOT NULL
, sales_amount NUMBER NOT NULL
, CONSTRAINT order_items_orders_fk FOREIGN KEY (order_id) REFERENCES 
orders(order_id)
)
PARTITION BY REFERENCE (order_items_orders_fk)
PARALLEL;

A typical data warehouse query would scan a large amount of data. Note that in the underlying plan, the columns Rows, Bytes, Cost (%CPU), Time, and TQ have been removed.

EXPLAIN PLAN FOR
SELECT o.order_date
, sum(oi.sales_amount) sum_sales
FROM orders o
, order_items oi
WHERE o.order_id = oi.order_id
AND o.order_date BETWEEN TO_DATE('01-FEB-2006','DD-MON-YYYY')
                     AND TO_DATE('31-MAY-2006','DD-MON-YYYY')
GROUP BY o.order_id
, o.order_date
ORDER BY o.order_date;

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation                         | Name        | Pstart| Pstop |IN-OUT| PQ Distrib |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT                  |             |       |       |      |            |
|   1 |  PX COORDINATOR                   |             |       |       |      |            |
|   2 |   PX SEND QC (ORDER)              | :TQ10001    |       |       | P->S | QC (ORDER) |
|   3 |    SORT GROUP BY                  |             |       |       | PCWP |            |
|   4 |     PX RECEIVE                    |             |       |       | PCWP |            |
|   5 |      PX SEND RANGE                | :TQ10000    |       |       | P->P | RANGE      |
|   6 |       SORT GROUP BY               |             |       |       | PCWP |            |
|   7 |        PX PARTITION RANGE ITERATOR|             |     3 |     6 | PCWC |            |
|*  8 |         HASH JOIN                 |             |       |       | PCWP |            |
|*  9 |          TABLE ACCESS FULL        | ORDERS      |     3 |     6 | PCWP |            |
|  10 |          TABLE ACCESS FULL        | ORDER_ITEMS |     3 |     6 | PCWP |            |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------

   8 - access("O"."ORDER_ID"="OI"."ORDER_ID")
   9 - filter("O"."ORDER_DATE"<=TO_DATE(' 2006-05-31 00:00:00', 'syyyy-mm-dd hh24:mi:ss'))

Partial Partition-Wise Joins

Oracle Database can perform partial partition-wise joins only in parallel. Unlike full partition-wise joins, partial partition-wise joins require you to partition only one table on the join key, not both tables. The partitioned table is referred to as the reference table. The other table may or may not be partitioned. Partial partition-wise joins are more common than full partition-wise joins.

To execute a partial partition-wise join, the database dynamically repartitions the other table based on the partitioning of the reference table. Once the other table is repartitioned, the execution is similar to a full partition-wise join.

The following example shows a call detail records table, cdrs, in a typical data warehouse scenario. The table is interval-hash partitioned.

CREATE TABLE cdrs
( id                 NUMBER
, cust_id            NUMBER
, from_number        VARCHAR2(20)
, to_number          VARCHAR2(20)
, date_of_call       DATE
, distance           VARCHAR2(1)
, call_duration_in_s NUMBER(4)
) PARTITION BY RANGE(date_of_call)
INTERVAL (NUMTODSINTERVAL(1,'DAY'))
SUBPARTITION BY HASH(cust_id)
SUBPARTITIONS 16
(PARTITION p0 VALUES LESS THAN (TO_DATE('01-JAN-2005','dd-MON-yyyy')))
PARALLEL;

The cdrs table is joined with the non-partitioned callers table on cust_id to rank the customers who spent most time calling.

EXPLAIN PLAN FOR
SELECT c.cust_id
,      c.cust_last_name
,      c.cust_first_name
,      AVG(call_duration_in_s)
,      COUNT(1)
,      DENSE_RANK() OVER
       (ORDER BY (AVG(call_duration_in_s) * COUNT(1)) DESC) ranking
FROM   callers c
,      cdrs    cdr
WHERE cdr.cust_id = c.cust_id
AND cdr.date_of_call BETWEEN TO_DATE('01-JAN-2006','dd-MON-yyyy')
                         AND TO_DATE('31-DEC-2006','dd-MON-yyyy')  
GROUP BY c.cust_id
, c.cust_last_name
, c.cust_first_name
ORDER BY ranking;

The execution shows a partial partition-wise join. Note that the columns Rows, Bytes, Cost (%CPU), Time, and TQ have been removed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation                           | Name     | Pstart| Pstop |IN-OUT| PQ Distrib |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT                    |          |       |       |      |            |
|   1 |  WINDOW NOSORT                      |          |       |       |      |            |
|   2 |   PX COORDINATOR                    |          |       |       |      |            |
|   3 |    PX SEND QC (ORDER)               | :TQ10002 |       |       | P->S | QC (ORDER) |
|   4 |     SORT ORDER BY                   |          |       |       | PCWP |            |
|   5 |      PX RECEIVE                     |          |       |       | PCWP |            |
|   6 |       PX SEND RANGE                 | :TQ10001 |       |       | P->P | RANGE      |
|   7 |        HASH GROUP BY                |          |       |       | PCWP |            |
|*  8 |         HASH JOIN                   |          |       |       | PCWP |            |
|   9 |          PART JOIN FILTER CREATE    | :BF0000  |       |       | PCWP |            |
|  10 |           BUFFER SORT               |          |       |       | PCWC |            |
|  11 |            PX RECEIVE               |          |       |       | PCWP |            |
|  12 |             PX SEND PARTITION (KEY) | :TQ10000 |       |       | S->P | PART (KEY) |
|  13 |              TABLE ACCESS FULL      | CALLERS  |       |       |      |            |
|  14 |          PX PARTITION RANGE ITERATOR|          |   367 |   731 | PCWC |            |
|  15 |           PX PARTITION HASH ALL     |          |     1 |    16 | PCWC |            |
|* 16 |            TABLE ACCESS FULL        | CDRS     |  5857 | 11696 | PCWP |            |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------

   8 - access("CDR"."CUST_ID"="C"."CUST_ID")
  16 - filter("CDR"."DATE_OF_CALL">=TO_DATE(' 2006-01-01 00:00:00', 'syyyy-mm-dd 
hh24:mi:ss') AND "CDR"."DATE_OF_CALL"<=TO_DATE('
              2006-12-31 00:00:00', 'syyyy-mm-dd hh24:mi:ss'))

Benefits of Partition-Wise Joins

Partition-wise joins offer benefits described in the following sections:

• Reduction of Communications Overhead

• Reduction of Memory Requirements

Performance Considerations for Parallel Partition-Wise Joins

The optimizer weighs the advantages and disadvantages when deciding whether or not to use partition-wise joins.

• In range partitioning where partition sizes differ, data skew increases response time; some parallel execution servers take longer than others to finish their joins. Oracle recommends the use of hash partitioning and subpartitioning to enable partition-wise joins because hash partitioning, if the number of partitions is a power of two, limits the risk of skew. Ideally, the hash partitioning key is unique or almost unique to minimize the risk of skew.

• The number of partitions used for partition-wise joins should, if possible, be a multiple of the number of query servers. With a degree of parallelism of 16, for example, you can have 16, 32, or even 64 partitions. If there is an odd number of partitions, then some parallel execution servers are used less than others. For example, if there are 17 evenly distributed partition pairs, only one pair will work on the last join, while the other pairs will have to wait. This is because, in the beginning of the execution, each parallel execution server works on a different partition pair. At the end of this first phase, only one pair is left. Thus, a single parallel execution server joins this remaining pair while all other parallel execution servers are idle.

Sometimes, parallel joins can cause remote I/Os. For example, on Oracle Real Application Clusters environments running on MPP configurations, if a pair of matching partitions is not collocated on the same node, a partition-wise join requires extra internode communication due to remote I/O. This is because Oracle must transfer at least one partition to the node where the join is performed. In this case, it is better to explicitly redistribute the data than to use a partition-wise join.

Local Partitioned Indexes

In a local index, all keys in a particular index partition refer only to rows stored in a single underlying table partition. A local index is equipartitioned with the underlying table. Oracle partitions the index on the same columns as the underlying table, creates the same number of partitions or subpartitions, and gives them the same partition bounds as corresponding partitions of the underlying table.

Oracle also maintains the index partitioning automatically when partitions in the underlying table are added, dropped, merged, or split, or when hash partitions or subpartitions are added or coalesced. This ensures that the index remains equipartitioned with the table.

For data warehouse applications, local nonprefixed indexes can improve performance because many index partitions can be scanned in parallel by range queries on the index key. The following example creates a local B-tree index on a partitioned customers table.

ALTER SESSION enable parallel ddl;

CREATE INDEX cust_last_name_ix
ON customers(last_name) LOCAL
PARALLEL NOLOGGING ;

Bitmap indexes use a very efficient storage mechanism for low cardinality columns. Bitmap indexes are commonly used in data warehouses, especially in data warehouses that implement so-called star schemas. A single star schema consists of a central large fact table and multiple smaller dimension tables that describe the data in the fact table.

For example, the sales table in the sample sh schema in the Oracle Database is a fact table, that is described by dimension tables customers, products, promotions, times, and channels. Bitmap indexes enable the so-called star transformation, an optimization for fast query retrieval against star or star look-a-like schemas.

Fact table foreign key columns are ideal candidates for bitmap indexes, because generally there are relatively few distinct values relative to the total number of rows. Fact tables are often range or range-* partitioned, in which case you have to create local bitmap indexes. Global bitmap indexes on partitioned tables are not supported.

The following example creates a local partitioned bitmap index on the sales table.

ALTER SESSION enable parallel ddl;

CREATE BITMAP INDEX prod_id_ix
ON sales(prod_id) LOCAL
PARALLEL NOLOGGING;

Non-Partitioned Indexes

You can create non-partitioned indexes on non-partitioned tables and on partitioned tables. Non-partitioned indexes are primarily used on non-partitioned tables in data warehouse environments. You can use a non-partitioned global index on a partitioned table to enforce a primary or unique key. A non-partitioned (global) index can be useful for queries that commonly retrieve very few rows based on equality predicates or in-list on a column or set of columns that is not included in the partitioning key. In those cases, it can be faster to scan a single index than to scan many index partitions to find all matching rows.

Unique indexes on columns other than the partitioning columns must be global because unique local nonprefixed indexes whose key does not contain the partitioning key are not supported. Unique keys are not always enforced in data warehouses due to the controlled data load processes and the performance cost of enforcing the unique constraint. Global indexes can grow very large on tables with billions of rows.

The following example creates a global unique index on the sales table. Note that very few queries will benefit from this index. In systems with a very limited data load window, you should consider not to create and maintain it.

ALTER SESSION enable parallel ddl;

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX sales_unique_ix
ON sales(cust_id, prod_id, promo_id, channel_id, time_id)
PARALLEL NOLOGGING;

Global Partitioned Indexes

You can create global partitioned indexes on non-partitioned tables and on partitioned tables. In a global partitioned index, the keys in a particular index partition may refer to rows stored in more than one underlying table partition or subpartition. A global index can be range or hash partitioned, though it can be defined on any type of partitioned table.

A global index is created by specifying the GLOBAL attribute. The database administrator is responsible for defining the initial partitioning of a global index at creation and for maintaining the partitioning over time. Index partitions can be merged or split as necessary.

Global indexes can be useful if there is a class of queries that uses an access path to the table to retrieve a few rows via an index, and by partitioning the index you can eliminate large portions of the index for the majority of queries that use the index. On a partitioned table you would consider a global partitioned index if the column or columns you should include to achieve partition pruning do not include the table partitioning key.

The following example creates a global hash-partitioned index on the sales table.

CREATE INDEX cust_id_prod_id_global_ix
ON sales(cust_id,prod_id)
GLOBAL PARTITION BY HASH (cust_id)
( PARTITION p1 TABLESPACE tbs1
, PARTITION p2 TABLESPACE tbs2
, PARTITION p3 TABLESPACE tbs3
, PARTITION p4 TABLESPACE tbs4
)
PARALLEL NOLOGGING;

Partitioning and Data Compression

Data in a partitioned table can be compressed on a partition-by-partition basis. Using compressed data is most efficient for data that does not change frequently. Although Oracle Database 11g supports compression for all DML operations, it is still more efficient to modify data in a non-compressed table.

Common data warehouse scenarios often see few data changes as data ages and other scenarios only insert data. Using the partition management features, you can compress data on a partition-by-partition basis. Note that altering a partition to enable compression only applies to future data to be inserted into the partition. If you want to compress the existing data in the partition, then you have to move the partition. Enabling compression and moving a partition can be done in a single operation.

If you want to use table compression on partitioned tables with bitmap indexes, then you need to do the following before you introduce the compression attribute for the first time:

1. Mark bitmap indexes unusable.

2. Set the compression attribute.

3. Rebuild the indexes.

The first time you make a compressed partition part of an already existing, fully uncompressed partitioned table, you must either drop all existing bitmap indexes or mark them UNUSABLE prior to adding a compressed partition. This must be done regardless of whether any partition contains data. It is also independent of the operation that causes one or more compressed partitions to become part of the table. This does not apply to a partitioned table having B-tree indexes only.

The following example shows how to compress the SALES_1995 partition in the sales table.

ALTER SESSION enable parallel ddl;

ALTER TABLE sales
MOVE PARTITION sales_1995
COMPRESS FOR OLTP
PARALLEL NOLOGGING;

If a table or a partition takes less space on disk, then the performance of large table scans in an I/O-constraint environment may improve.

Materialized Views and Partitioning

One technique employed in data warehouses to improve performance is the creation of summaries. Summaries are special types of aggregate views that improve query execution times by precalculating expensive joins and aggregation operations prior to execution and storing the results in a table in the database. For example, you can create a summary table to contain the sums of sales by region and by product.

The summaries or aggregates that are referred to in this book and in literature on data warehousing are created in Oracle Database using a schema object called a materialized view. Materialized views in a data warehouse are meant to speed up query performance.

The database supports transparent rewrites against materialized views, so that you do not need to modify the original queries to take advantage of precalculated results in materialized views. Instead of executing the query, the database will retrieve precalculated results from one or more materialized views, perform any necessary additional operations on the data, and return the query results. The database guarantees correct results in line with your setting of the QUERY_REWRITE_INTEGRITY initialization parameter.

ALTER SESSION ENABLE PARALLEL DDL;

CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW country_sales
PARTITION BY HASH (country_id)
PARTITIONS 16
COMPRESS FOR OLTP
PARALLEL NOLOGGING
ENABLE QUERY REWRITE
AS SELECT co.country_id
, co.country_name
, co.country_subregion
, co.country_region
, sum(sa.quantity_sold) country_quantity_sold
, sum(sa.amount_sold) country_amount_sold
FROM sales sa
, customers cu
, countries co
WHERE sa.cust_id = cu.cust_id
AND cu.country_id = co.country_id
GROUP BY co.country_id
, co.country_name
, co.country_subregion
, co.country_region;