Monday, September 29, 2014

OPTIMIZER_MODE = FIRST_ROWS_N

I have known about the first_rows optimizer mode for some time. This tells Oracle to use an execution path which will return the first few rows as quickly as possible. However, I recently read about the first_rows_n optimizer mode, which apparently appeared first in Oracle 9. This tells Oracle to use an execution path which will return the first n rows quickly, where n can be 1, 10, 100 or 1000. I decided to try it out in an Oracle 11.2 database. First I checked that Oracle would accept the expected values of n:

SQL> alter session set optimizer_mode = first_rows
  2  /
 
Session altered.
 
SQL> alter session set optimizer_mode = first_rows_1
  2  /
 
Session altered.
 
SQL> alter session set optimizer_mode = first_rows_10
  2  /
 
Session altered.
 
SQL> alter session set optimizer_mode = first_rows_100
  2  /
 
Session altered.
 
SQL>

…then, before checking the final option, I started to trace my SQL*Plus session:

SQL> alter session set sql_trace = true
  2  /
 
Session altered.
 
SQL> alter session set optimizer_mode = first_rows_1000
  2  /
 
Session altered.
 
SQL> select sysdate "first_rows_1000" from dual
  2  /
 
first_rows_1000
---------------
29-SEP-14
 
SQL> alter session set sql_trace = false
  2  /
 
Session altered.
 
SQL>

I ran the trace file through tkprof and looked at the explain plan for the query I had just run. It did not seem to be aware exactly which optimizer mode I had used: 

********************************************************************************
 
SQL ID: 9u1zkyyn9vbt4
Plan Hash: 1546270724
select sysdate "first_rows_1000"
from
dual
 
 
call     count       cpu    elapsed       disk      query    current        rows
------- ------  -------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------  ----------
Parse        2      0.01       0.00          0          0          0           0
Execute      2      0.00       0.00          0          0          0           0
Fetch        4      0.00       0.00          0          0          0           2
------- ------  -------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------  ----------
total        8      0.01       0.00          0          0          0           2
 
Misses in library cache during parse: 1
Optimizer mode: FIRST_ROWS
Parsing user id: 5  (SYSTEM)
 
Rows     Row Source Operation
-------  ---------------------------------------------------
      1  FAST DUAL  (cr=0 pr=0 pw=0 time=0 us cost=2 size=0 card=1)
 
 
Rows     Execution Plan
-------  ---------------------------------------------------
      0  SELECT STATEMENT   MODE: FIRST_ROWS
      1   FAST DUAL
 
********************************************************************************
 
Finally, I tried to use an invalid value for n. This time the error message explained exactly where I had gone wrong: 

SQL> alter session set optimizer_mode = first_rows_99
  2  /
ERROR:
ORA-00096: invalid value FIRST_ROWS_99 for parameter
optimizer_mode, must be from among first_rows_1000,
first_rows_100, first_rows_10, first_rows_1,
first_rows, all_rows, choose, rule
SQL>

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