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What Exactly Is PLAN - TABLE in Oracle Database?

Every user session on Oracle database will be able to access default table PLAN_TABLE to collect execution plan of a query from EXPLAIN PLAN command. But, how is this table available to all the users in the database and gets empty once you disconnect? Is this table available and created for every us...

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OrSklAcademy
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140 views

What Exactly Is PLAN - TABLE in Oracle Database?

Every user session on Oracle database will be able to access default table PLAN_TABLE to collect execution plan of a query from EXPLAIN PLAN command. But, how is this table available to all the users in the database and gets empty once you disconnect? Is this table available and created for every us...

Uploaded by

OrSklAcademy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What exactly is PLAN_TABLE in

Oracle Database?

Every user session on Oracle database will be able to access default table
PLAN_TABLE to collect execution plan of a query from EXPLAIN PLAN
command. But, how is this table available to all the users in the database and
gets empty once you disconnect? Is this table available and created for every
user logging into the database or is it a global table and available publicly to
access? I am sure that you must have got little excited with these questions
and we are going to get answers for many such questions in this blog with
the help of a step-by-step analytic approach. In our earlier articles EXPLAIN
PLAN for multiple SQL statements, Ways of generating EXECUTION PLAN in
Oracle Database we have clearly understood the usage of PLAN_TABLE to
generate execution plan for a query. In this blog, we are going to see what
exactly is this PLAN_TABLE and all the concepts around its existence.
Basics:

Earlier to 11g, consider in 10g we will have to create this default table
for EXPLAIN PLAN runningutlxplan.sql file
from $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin. Let us read this file and understand
what exactly is this PLAN_TABLE.
[oracle@PT-DB ~]$ cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/utlxplan.sql

create table PLAN_TABLE (


statement_id

varchar2(30),

plan_id

number,

timestamp

date,

remarks

varchar2(4000),

.);

It has got just one DDL to create PLAN_TABLE in the schema you are
connected to when running this SQL file. So it doesnt actually give us
good details of why is this now available in 11gR2(Which I am using). Let
us start our analysis with our case study now.

Case study:

From dba_objects let us understand what is the object type


of PLAN_TABLE by connecting to the data base as SYS.
SQL> col OBJECT_NAME for a20
SQL> select object_name,OBJECT_TYPE from dba_objects where
object_name=PLAN_TABLE';
OBJECT_NAME

OBJECT_TYPE

-
PLAN_TABLE

SYNONYM

It says that PLAN_TABLE is a SYNONYM and not the real name of a

table.
Let us extract the DDL of PLAN_TABLE synonym to check the actual

table name.
SQL>select dbms_metadata.get_ddl(SYNONYM,PLAN_TABLE,PUBLIC)
from dual;
CREATE OR REPLACE PUBLIC SYNONYM PLAN_TABLE FOR
SYS.PLAN_TABLE$

Now it is clear that PLAN_TABLE is a PUBLIC synonym


of SYS.PLAN_TABLE$ and so it is accessible by all the users.

But the question still alive that how this table contents are erased
every time session gets disconnected. Let us go further into the

analysis.
At this moment, I could recollect the concepts of GLOBAL TEMPORAY
TABLES (GTT) which have got the feature of cleaning up the data in the
table after the session disconnects. So let us check

ifSYS.PLAN_TABLE$ is a GTT.
SQL> select table_name,TEMPORARY from dba_tables where
table_name=PLAN_TABLE$';
TABLE_NAME

PLAN_TABLE$

There it is!!! We got to know that PLAN_TABLE$ is a GLOBAL


TEMPORARY TABLE and PLAN_TABLEis a PUBLIC SYNONYM which is

why it is available for all the users to access and data gets erased as
soon as session disconnects.
Having understand the type of the object, let us try to find where
exactly the data is temporarily stored until the user session disconnects.

To achieve this let me check with the following query.


SQL> select table_name,TEMPORARY,tablespace_name from dba_tables
where table_name=PLAN_TABLE$';
TABLE_NAME

T TABLESPACE_NAME


PLAN_TABLE$

Oops!!! There is not tablespace_name for this object at all. Does it


mean that data is not stored in the segments at all? No, GTT data is
always stored in the data file segments. But how do we recognize which
tablespace segment? From the core concepts of Global Temporary Tables

fromOracle document, the default segments used by global temporary


tables are from the default temporary tablespace of the user session.
Let us check if the PLAN_TABLE has some data and parallel check

temporary tablespace segment usage.


SQL> select count(*) from plan_table;

COUNT(*)
0
SQL> select USER,BLOCKS from v$tempseg_usage;
no rows selected

I am going to run EXPLAIN PLAN of a query and re-check the same as

above.
SQL> explain plan for select * from v$session;
Explained.
SQL> select count(*) from plan_table;
COUNT(*)
6
SQL> select USER,BLOCKS from v$tempseg_usage;
USER

BLOCKS

-
SYS

128

SYS

128

SYS

128

Excited!!! This proves that data of PLAN_TABLE is stored in temporary

tablespace of the database.


As we see single table SYS.PLAN_TABLE$ is used by all the concurrent
sessions in the database, let us check if data in this table is private to
each session.

SYS connection:
SQL> select count(*) from sys.plan_table$;

COUNT(*)
0
Session 1:
SQL> explain plan for select * from v$session;
Explained.
SQL> select count(*) from sys.plan_table$;
COUNT(*)
6
SYS connection:
SQL> select count(*) from sys.plan_table$;
COUNT(*)
0

This is how GTT tables work, data from the table is bundled to the

session which writes the data.


Unfortunately, there is no method to check which session occupying

what space of temporary segments for any Global Temporary Tables.


Does this table have any indexes created by default? Let us check that

if so.
SQL> select index_name,index_type from dba_indexes where
TABLE_NAME=PLAN_TABLE$';
INDEX_NAME

INDEX_TYPE

SYS_IL0000005124C00027$$

LOB

Which means that this is the index created for LOB columns in the table
by default by the database. So PLAN_TABLE$ have a LOB column in it.

Apart from that there are no indexes created on this table.


Further interesting questions:

Will optimizer write an execution plan when you query PLAN_TABLE and

if so what access paths it will use?


Can we gather stats on any Global Temporary Table and how can we
verify them?

I will leave these questions to answer yourself by continuing exciting analysis

of this case study


Conclusion:

PLAN_TABLE is a PUBLIC SYNONYM of SYS.PLAN_TABLE$ Global

Temporary Table.
Data of PLAN_TABLE is stored into temporary tablespace segments.
Temporary tablespace is not just used for sorting; it is also used by

global temporary tablespaces.


Data of PLAN_TABLE is private to the session itself, even SYS user

cannot query all the contents of PLAN_TABLE.


Default index for CLOB column is created on SYS.PLAN_TABLE$ table.

Users connected from application or OEM or SQL plus or any other tool
will be able to accessPLAN_TABLE.

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