dbms_sqldiag

If you’re familiar with SQL Profiles and SQL Baselines you may also know about SQL Patches – a feature that allows you to construct hints that you can attach to SQL statements at run-time without changing the code. Oracle 12c Release 2 introduces a couple of important changes to this feature:

• It’s now official – the feature had been copied from package dbms_sqldiag_internal to package dbms_sqldiag.
• The limitation of 500 characters has been removed from the hint text – it’s now a CLOB column [ed: but see Threat Warning]

H/T to Nigel Bayliss of Oracle Corp. for including this detail in his presentation to the UKOUG last week, and pointing out that it’s also available for Standard Edition.

There are a couple of other little changes as you can see below from the two extract from the 12.2 declarations of dbms_sqldiag and dbms_sqldiag_internal below:

dbms_sqldiag
------------
FUNCTION CREATE_SQL_PATCH RETURNS VARCHAR2
 Argument Name                  Type                    In/Out Default?
 ------------------------------ ----------------------- ------ --------
 SQL_TEXT                       CLOB                    IN
 HINT_TEXT                      CLOB                    IN
 NAME                           VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 DESCRIPTION                    VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 CATEGORY                       VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 VALIDATE                       BOOLEAN                 IN     DEFAULT

FUNCTION CREATE_SQL_PATCH RETURNS VARCHAR2
 Argument Name                  Type                    In/Out Default?
 ------------------------------ ----------------------- ------ --------
 SQL_ID                         VARCHAR2                IN
 HINT_TEXT                      CLOB                    IN
 NAME                           VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 DESCRIPTION                    VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 CATEGORY                       VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 VALIDATE                       BOOLEAN                 IN     DEFAULT

dbms_sqldiag_internal
---------------------
FUNCTION I_CREATE_PATCH RETURNS VARCHAR2
 Argument Name                  Type                    In/Out Default?
 ------------------------------ ----------------------- ------ --------
 SQL_ID                         VARCHAR2                IN
 HINT_TEXT                      CLOB                    IN
 CREATOR                        VARCHAR2                IN
 NAME                           VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 DESCRIPTION                    VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 CATEGORY                       VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 VALIDATE                       BOOLEAN                 IN     DEFAULT

FUNCTION I_CREATE_PATCH RETURNS VARCHAR2
 Argument Name                  Type                    In/Out Default?
 ------------------------------ ----------------------- ------ --------
 SQL_TEXT                       CLOB                    IN
 HINT_TEXT                      CLOB                    IN
 CREATOR                        VARCHAR2                IN
 NAME                           VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 DESCRIPTION                    VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 CATEGORY                       VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 VALIDATE                       BOOLEAN                 IN     DEFAULT

• The function names change from i_create_patch to create_sql_patch when exposed in dbms_sqldiag.
• There are two versions of the function – one that requires you to supply the exact SQL text, and a new version that allows you to supply an SQL ID.
• The internal function also adds a creator to the existing parameter list – and it doesn’t have a default so if you’ve already got some code to use the internal version it’s not going to work on an upgrade to 12.2 until you change it.

I was prompted to write this note by a tweet asking me if there’s any SQL available to see the contents of an SQL Profile in 11g and 12c. (I published some simple code several years ago for 10g, (both before accepting and after accepting) but Oracle changed the base tables in 11g). The answer is yes, probably on the Internet somewhere, but here’s some code I wrote a couple of years ago to report SQL Profiles in more recent versions of Oracle:

rem
rem     sql_profile_baseline_11g.sql
rem     J.P.Lewis
rem     July 2010
rem

set pagesize 60
set linesize 132
set trimspool on

column hint format a70 wrap word
column signature format 999,999,999,999,999,999,999

break on signature skip 1 on opt_type skip 1 on plan_id skip 1

spool sql_profile_baseline_11g

select
        prf.signature,
        decode(
                obj_type,
                1,'Profile',
                2,'Baseline',
                3,'Patch',
                4,'Quarantine',    -- appeared in 19c
                'Other'
        )       opt_type,
        prf.plan_id,
        extractvalue(value(tab),'.')    hint
from
        (
        select
                /*+ no_eliminate_oby */
                *
        from
                sqlobj$data
        where
                comp_data is not null
        order by
                signature, obj_type, plan_id
        )       prf,
        table(
                xmlsequence(
                        extract(xmltype(prf.comp_data),'/outline_data/hint')
                )
        )       tab
;

This will report the hints associated with SQL Baselines, SQL Profiles, and SQL Patches – all three store the data in the same base table. As a minor variation I also have a query (possibly used as the basis for MOS Doc ID 2543795.1) that will report a named profile/baseline/patch, but this requires a join to the sqlobj$ table. As you can see from the substitution variable near the end of the text, the script will prompt you for an object name.

rem
rem     Script: sql_profile_baseline_11g_1.sql
rem     Dated:  July 2010
rem     Author: Jonathan Lewis
rem

set pagesize 60
set linesize 180
set trimspool on

column  plan_name format a32
column  signature format 999,999,999,999,999,999,999
column  category  format a10
column  hint format a70 wrap word

break on plan_name skip 1 on signature skip 1 on opt_type skip 1 on category skip 1 on plan_id skip 1

spool sql_profile_baseline_11g

select
        prf.plan_name,
        prf.signature,
        decode(
                obj_type,
                1,'Profile',
                2,'Baseline',
                3,'Patch',
                  'Other'
        )       opt_type,
        prf.category,
        prf.plan_id,
        extractvalue(value(hnt),'.') hint
from
        (
        select
                /*+ no_eliminate_oby */
                so.name         plan_name,
                so.signature,
                so.category,
                so.obj_type,
                so.plan_id,
                sod.comp_data
                from
                        sqlobj$         so,
                        sqlobj$data     sod
                where
                        so.name = '&m_plan_name'        -- this will prompt for a plan name
                and     sod.signature = so.signature
                and     sod.category = so.category
                and     sod.obj_type = so.obj_type
                and     sod.plan_id = so.plan_id
                order by
                        signature, obj_type, plan_id
        )       prf,
        table (
                select
                        xmlsequence(
                                extract(xmltype(prf.comp_data),'/outline_data/hint')
                        )
                from
                        dual
        )       hnt
;

Lagniappe:

One of the enhancements that appeared in 12c for SQL Baselines was that the plan the baseline was supposed to produce was stored in the database so that Oracle could check that the baseline would still reproduce the expected plan before applying it the DBA could see the plan the baseline had been producing before Oracle stopped using it. (Currently Oracle stores the plan’s hash value, and stops using the baseline if it starts to produce a different hash value. Storing the plan as well gives the DBA a chance of working out how to reproduce the desired plan and create a new baseline to get to it.)

These plans (also generated for Profiles but not necessarily Patches) are stored in the table sqlobj$plan, and the dbms_xplan package has been enhanced with three new functions to report them:

FUNCTION DISPLAY_SQL_PATCH_PLAN RETURNS DBMS_XPLAN_TYPE_TABLE
 Argument Name                  Type                    In/Out Default?
 ------------------------------ ----------------------- ------ --------
 NAME                           VARCHAR2                IN
 FORMAT                         VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT

FUNCTION DISPLAY_SQL_PLAN_BASELINE RETURNS DBMS_XPLAN_TYPE_TABLE
 Argument Name                  Type                    In/Out Default?
 ------------------------------ ----------------------- ------ --------
 SQL_HANDLE                     VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 PLAN_NAME                      VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT
 FORMAT                         VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT

FUNCTION DISPLAY_SQL_PROFILE_PLAN RETURNS DBMS_XPLAN_TYPE_TABLE
 Argument Name                  Type                    In/Out Default?
 ------------------------------ ----------------------- ------ --------
 NAME                           VARCHAR2                IN
 FORMAT                         VARCHAR2                IN     DEFAULT

e.g.
SQL> select * from table(dbms_xplan.display_sql_profile_plan('SYS_SQLPROF_015c9bd3bceb0000'));

PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SQL text: select        t1.id, t2.id from       t1, t2 where    t1.id between 10000 and
          20000 and     t2.n1 = t1.n1 and       t2.n1 = t2.v2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SQL Profile Name: SYS_SQLPROF_015c9bd3bceb0000
Status:           ENABLED
Plan rows:        From dictionary
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Plan hash value: 3683239666

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation               | Name     | Rows  | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |    TQ  |IN-OUT| PQ Distrib |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT        |          | 10501 |   287K|   248   (4)| 00:00:01 |        |      |            |
|   1 |  PX COORDINATOR         |          |       |       |     0   (0)|          |        |      |            |
|   2 |   PX SEND QC (RANDOM)   | :TQ10002 | 10501 |   287K|   248   (4)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,02 | P->S | QC (RAND)  |
|*  3 |    HASH JOIN BUFFERED   |          | 10501 |   287K|   248   (4)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,02 | PCWP |            |
|   4 |     PX RECEIVE          |          | 10002 |    97K|   123   (3)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,02 | PCWP |            |
|   5 |      PX SEND HASH       | :TQ10000 | 10002 |    97K|   123   (3)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,00 | P->P | HASH       |
|   6 |       PX BLOCK ITERATOR |          | 10002 |    97K|   123   (3)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,00 | PCWC |            |
|*  7 |        TABLE ACCESS FULL| T1       | 10002 |    97K|   123   (3)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,00 | PCWP |            |
|   8 |     PX RECEIVE          |          |   104K|  1845K|   124   (4)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,02 | PCWP |            |
|   9 |      PX SEND HASH       | :TQ10001 |   104K|  1845K|   124   (4)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,01 | P->P | HASH       |
|  10 |       PX BLOCK ITERATOR |          |   104K|  1845K|   124   (4)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,01 | PCWC |            |
|* 11 |        TABLE ACCESS FULL| T2       |   104K|  1845K|   124   (4)| 00:00:01 |  Q1,01 | PCWP |            |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------

   3 - access("T2"."N1"="T1"."N1")
   7 - filter("T1"."ID"=10000)
  11 - filter("T2"."N1"=TO_NUMBER("T2"."V2"))

Note
-----
   - automatic DOP: Computed Degree of Parallelism is 2

Disclaimer – I’ve checked only the SQL_PROFILE function call on 12.2, after creating a profile to check that my old 11g report still worked in 12c.

Update Aug 2017

I have just rediscovered a note I made (though I don’t have a reference to the source) that Patch 17203284 backports the visibility of create_sql_patch to dbms_sqldiag in 12.1.0.2. The description for the patch is: Enhancements for dbms_sqldiag_internal.i_create_patch but the “Bugs resolved by this patch” link on the patch details screen leads to the “Requested bug could not be displayed” page.

[Update: Oct 2017,(and see comment below) – this patch doesn’t make public a procedure create_sql_patch, it simply adds a version of i_create_patch that takes a CLOB hint text to dbms_sqldiag_internal.]

Threat Warning (Feb 2022)

 

Although you can pass a CLOB to the call to create patch, the code to store the patch converts it into a variable of type sqlprof_attr, which defined as an “array(2000) of varchar2(500)” – and the conversion simply cuts the clob into pieces every 500 bytes, breaking some of the hints! See this comment below from Vladimir Andreev – which I should have highlighted at the time.

As with so many little details, I had forgotten that I had been warned about this until Christian Antognini published a blog note about it, including some sample code to work around the problem.

Chris Antognini has posted a tweet [Feb 2023] to let us know the bug has been fixed and that patch 34940767 is now available, and he’s tested the 19.18 patch.