Tag: top_tip

Overriding DBMS_STATS Parameter Settings

Since it’s introduction in Oracle Database 8i, the DBMS_STATS package is Oracle’s preferred method for gathering statistics. With each new database release the DBMS_STATS package is extended to accommodate new approaches to gather statistics and new types of statistics.

Over the years, application developers and DBAs have written hundreds of scripts using the DBMS_STATS package to help gather and manage optimizer statistics effectively. However, once written these scripts are rarely modified to take advantage of the improvements in the DBMS_STATS package, which can result in suboptimal statistics.

Oracle Database 12 Release 2 makes it a lot easier to be able to manage this vast collection of scripts by includes a new DBMS_STATS preference called PREFERENCE_OVERRIDES_PARAMETER. When this preference is set to TRUE, it allows preference settings to override the parameter values specifically set in a DBMS_STATS command.

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Longer Identifiers in Oracle Database 12c Release 2

Prior to Oracle Database 12c Release 2, all object names had been limited to just 30 bytes. This limitation lead to some interesting problems, especially if you wanted to use descriptive names for the database objects you were creating.

Take for example the dictionary tables we wanted to create in 12.1 to help manage SQL Plan Directives. The first table was DBA_SQL_PLAN_DIRECTIVES, with 23 characters, which wasn’t problem. However, the second table we wanted was DBA_SQL_PLAN_DIRECTIVES_OBJECTS.

Now that Oracle Database 12c Release 2 is available on-prem, I thought it would be a good time to remind folks about what they can expect from the new release. I’m going to divide topics into two categories, Marquee Features and top-tips. Let’s start with a top-tip!

Prior to Oracle Database 12c Release 2, all object names had been limited to just 30 bytes. This limitation lead to some interesting problems, especially if you wanted to use descriptive names for the database objects you were creating.

Take for example the dictionary tables we wanted to create in 12.1 to help manage SQL Plan Directives. The first table was DBA_SQL_PLAN_DIRECTIVES, with 23 characters, which wasn’t problem. However, the second table we wanted was DBA_SQL_PLAN_DIRECTIVES_OBJECTS.

Continue reading “Longer Identifiers in Oracle Database 12c Release 2”