Cost-Based Oracle Fundamentals

In this book, volume 1 in a series of three, Jonathan covers the fundamentals: the things that everyone who uses the Oracle database needs to know about the CBO. It sheds light on the decisions the CBO makes when parsing a SQL statement and choosing an access plan. It demonstrates how the CBO calculates the cost of a plan and the rules and factors that go into these calculations. It reveals the basic assumptions the optimizer makes about the SQL and the data, explains why things go wrong and how you can fix them when those assumptions are incomplete, inaccurate, or simply false. He also includes a fabulous Upgrade Headaches section that is essential reading for anyone who has ever has, or ever will, upgrade between Oracle versions. Volumes 2 and 3 will track changes to the CBO in subsequent Oracle 10g releases, and will cover the more advanced and complex features of optimization.