Beginning Oracle Database 11g Administration: From Novice to Professional

CHAPTER 17SQL Tuning

Every limbo boy and girl All around the limbo world Gonna do the limbo rock All around the limbo clock

—"Limbo Rock," recorded by Chubby Checker in 1962(free.napster.com/search/results.html?query=chubby+checker&type=artist)

Perhaps the most complex problem in database administration is SQL tuning, and it may not be a coincidence that I left it for the very end. The paucity of books devoted to SQL tuning is perhaps further evidence of the difficulty of the topic.

The only way to interact with Oracle, to retrieve data, to change data, to administer the database, is SQL. Oracle itself uses SQL to perform all the work that it does behind the scenes. SQL performance is therefore the key to database performance; all database ...