Chapter 7. Optimizing the Optimizer

This chapter describes how to configure and tune the Oracle optimizer.

SQL is a nonprocedural language: You define the data you want, not how to get it. Although the nonprocedural nature of SQL results in improvements in programmer productivity, the RDBMS must support a set of sophisticated algorithms to determine the optimal method of executing the SQL. In Oracle, these algorithms are collectively referred to as the optimizer.

The optimizer is one of the most sophisticated parts of the Oracle software stack, and it gets more and more complicated with every release. The optimizer makes good decisions across a wide range of circumstances, but it has not become self-aware yet, and human intervention is often ...

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