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Author Archives Charles Hooper

Oracle Query Optimizer Vanishing Acts

February 3, 2012 A couple of days ago I noticed an interesting thread in the comp.databases.oracle.server Usenet group that described a problem of vanishing tables.  The title of the thread certainly caught my attention, and I was a bit disappointed …

Posted 04 February 2012 § Uncategorized ‡ Comments Off °

Parent-Child Relationships and the Questions Left Unanswered by TKPROF, Re-Learning Something Old

January 30, 2012 As we have seen in the past, TKPROF output sometimes lies, and in a recent OTN thread I was reminded of another case or two where TKPROF output may be misleading.  In the OTN thread, the original poster (OP) started the thread by ask…

Posted 30 January 2012 § Uncategorized ‡ Comments Off °

Non-Specific Index Hints

January 24, 2012 (Modified January 25, 2012) As I read the “Troubleshooting Oracle Performance” book for the second time a couple of months ago, I made note on page 385 that it was possible to specify table columns in an index hint, rathe…

Posted 24 January 2012 § Uncategorized ‡ Comments Off °

Finding the Next Primary Key Value, a Pre-fixed Solution

January 20, 2012 A request for assistance came in from an ERP mailing list.  The original poster (OP) is running an unspecified version of Oracle Database 9i, and is in need of a solution to generate new part numbers with prefixed characters that desc…

Posted 20 January 2012 § Uncategorized ‡ Comments Off °

What Number Immediately Follows 3,999? Oracle Database Refuses to Answer

January 16, 2012 I put together a test case to demonstrate how the physical reads autotrace statistic could exceed the consistent gets autotrace statistic if a single-pass or multi-pass workarea execution were performed during the execution of the SQL …

Posted 16 January 2012 § Uncategorized ‡ Comments Off °

OT: Do Search Terms Describe the Visitor?

January 12, 2012 I thought that I would start this slightly off topic blog article with a bit of humor.  Seven months ago I wrote a blog article that refuses to move from the first position in the most visited articles on this blog.  In the process …

Posted 12 January 2012 § Uncategorized ‡ Comments Off °

Dumping Trace Events – What You See is Not Necessarily What You Get

January 9, 2012 A recent thread in the comp.databases.oracle.server Usenet group brought back memories of when Randolf Geist and I worked on the two chapters for the “Expert Oracle Practices” book.  In the chapters, among other things, we…

Posted 09 January 2012 § Uncategorized ‡ Comments Off °