Kerry Osborne's Oracle Blog

The APPEND_VALUES hint was introduced in 11.2 to allow direct path inserts with variables using the VALUES clause. i.e.

INSERT INTO XYZ (COL1, COL2) VALUES (:A, :B);

The feature was designed to allow bulk inserting via arrays of 100’s or 1000’s of records in a single insert statement. Prior to 11.2, there was no documented way to do an direct path insert other than with the APPEND hint which only worked on inserts that used the SELECT clause. i.e.

INSERT INTO XYZ SELECT * from ZYX;

There was however an undocumented hint (SYS_DL_CURSOR) which did a bulk insert of sorts. (not a full append) You may have seen this hint if you use Informatica. I was recently asked about the use of Informatica with Hybrid Columnar Compression (HCC) on Exadata. Which prompted a little research on these two methods of loading data and whether they were compatible with HCC or not. So first off, here’s a test with the APPEND_VALUES clause (using my check_row_comp.sql script):

KSO@dbm1> !cat bulk_insert1.sql

CREATE TABLE t1
(c1    NUMBER,
 c2    NUMBER,
 c3    VARCHAR2(50),
 c4    VARCHAR2(50),
 c5    DATE,
 c6    DATE)
compress for query high;

DECLARE
  -- Define a collection
  TYPE t1_tbl_type IS TABLE OF t1%ROWTYPE;
  t1_tbl    t1_tbl_type := t1_tbl_type();
BEGIN

  -- Populate the collection
  FOR i IN 1..32000 LOOP
    t1_tbl.EXTEND;
    t1_tbl(i).c1 := i;
    t1_tbl(i).c2 := i*i;
    t1_tbl(i).c3 := 'i=' || TO_CHAR(i);
    t1_tbl(i).c4 := 'i*i=' || TO_CHAR(i*i);
    t1_tbl(i).c5 := SYSDATE;
    t1_tbl(i).c6 := SYSDATE;
  END LOOP;

  -- Bulk Insert the collection into table T1
  FORALL i IN 1..t1_tbl.COUNT
    INSERT /*+ append_values */ INTO t1
      (c1,
       c2,
       c3,
       c4,
       c5,
       c6)
    VALUES
      (t1_tbl(i).c1,
       t1_tbl(i).c2,
       t1_tbl(i).c3,
       t1_tbl(i).c4,
       t1_tbl(i).c5,
       t1_tbl(i).c6);

END;
/

KSO@dbm1> @bulk_insert1

Table created.


PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

KSO@dbm1> select count(*) from t1;
select count(*) from t1
                     *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-12838: cannot read/modify an object after modifying it in parallel


KSO@dbm1> -- correct behavior for direct path insert
KSO@dbm1> commit;

Commit complete.

KSO@dbm1> select rowid from t1 where rownum < 10;

ROWID
------------------
AAARlqAAIAAB/krAAA
AAARlqAAIAAB/krAAB
AAARlqAAIAAB/krAAC
AAARlqAAIAAB/krAAD
AAARlqAAIAAB/krAAE
AAARlqAAIAAB/krAAF
AAARlqAAIAAB/krAAG
AAARlqAAIAAB/krAAH
AAARlqAAIAAB/krAAI

9 rows selected.

KSO@dbm1> @check_row_comp.sql
Enter value for owner: KSO
Enter value for table_namr: T1
Enter value for rowid: AAARlqAAIAAB/krAAH

OLD_ROWID            COMPRESSION_TYPE
-------------------- -------------------------
8.522539.7           HCC Query High

So the APPEND_VALUES hint behaves as expected, does a proper append and applies HCC. There are a couple of corner cases worth mentioning. First, small inserts (a single row for example) will not trigger the HCC processing. See the following example.

KSO@dbm1> insert /*+ append_values */ into t1 (c1) values (-1);

1 row created.

KSO@dbm1> select count(*) from t1 where c1 = -1;
select count(*) from t1 where c1 = -1
                     *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-12838: cannot read/modify an object after modifying it in parallel


KSO@dbm1> commit;

Commit complete.

KSO@dbm1> select rowid from t1 where c1 = -1;

ROWID
------------------
AAARlqAAIAAEfDLAAA

KSO@dbm1> @check_row_comp.sql
Enter value for owner: KSO
Enter value for table_namr: T1
Enter value for rowid: AAARlqAAIAAEfDLAAA

OLD_ROWID            COMPRESSION_TYPE
-------------------- -------------------------
8.1175755.0          No Compression

So a single row insert was done in direct path mode, but HCC was not applied due to the small size of the insert.

The second corner case is that objects owned by SYS (and stored in the SYSTEM tablespace) appear to be ineligible for HCC processing. See the example below which shows the same test but when T1 is owned by SYS. It also shows an alter table move does not compress the rows when the object is owned by SYS and stored in SYSTEM. Note: there could be something else that is preventing the compression but objects in SYSTEM that are not owned by SYS and objects that are owned by SYS but not stored in SYSTEM both seem to behave correctly. As Tanel says, “the rabbit hole always gets deeper”. (I’ll leave those tests as an exercise for the reader rather than clutter up this post) Here’s the simple case of creating a table in the SYSTEM tablespace that is owned by SYS.

SYS@dbm1> @bulk_insert1

Table created.


PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SYS@dbm1> select count(*) from t1;
select count(*) from t1
                     *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-12838: cannot read/modify an object after modifying it in parallel


SYS@dbm1> commit;

Commit complete.

SYS@dbm1> select rowid from t1 where rownum < 10;

ROWID
------------------
AAARltAABAAAUnRAAA
AAARltAABAAAUnRAAB
AAARltAABAAAUnRAAC
AAARltAABAAAUnRAAD
AAARltAABAAAUnRAAE
AAARltAABAAAUnRAAF
AAARltAABAAAUnRAAG
AAARltAABAAAUnRAAH
AAARltAABAAAUnRAAI

9 rows selected.

SYS@dbm1> @check_row_comp.sql
Enter value for owner: SYS
Enter value for table_namr: T1
Enter value for rowid: AAARltAABAAAUnRAAG

OLD_ROWID            COMPRESSION_TYPE
-------------------- -------------------------
1.84433.6            No Compression

SYS@dbm1> @table_size
Enter value for owner: SYS
Enter value for table_name: T1
Enter value for type: 
Enter value for tablespace_name: 

OWNER                SEGMENT_NAME                   TYPE               TOTALSIZE_MEGS TABLESPACE_NAME
-------------------- ------------------------------ ------------------ -------------- ------------------------------
SYS                  T1                             TABLE                         2.0 SYSTEM
                                                                       --------------
sum                                                                               2.0

SYS@dbm1> alter table sys.t1 move compress for archive high;

Table altered.

SYS@dbm1> @table_size
Enter value for owner: SYS
Enter value for table_name: T1
Enter value for type: 
Enter value for tablespace_name: 

OWNER                SEGMENT_NAME                   TYPE               TOTALSIZE_MEGS TABLESPACE_NAME
-------------------- ------------------------------ ------------------ -------------- ------------------------------
SYS                  T1                             TABLE                         2.0 SYSTEM
                                                                       --------------
sum                                                                               2.0

SYS@dbm1> select rowid from t1 where rownum < 10;

ROWID
------------------
AAARluAABAAAXNRAAA
AAARluAABAAAXNRAAB
AAARluAABAAAXNRAAC
AAARluAABAAAXNRAAD
AAARluAABAAAXNRAAE
AAARluAABAAAXNRAAF
AAARluAABAAAXNRAAG
AAARluAABAAAXNRAAH
AAARluAABAAAXNRAAI

9 rows selected.

SYS@dbm1> @check_row_comp.sql
Enter value for owner: SYS
Enter value for table_namr: T1
Enter value for rowid: AAARluAABAAAXNRAAG

OLD_ROWID            COMPRESSION_TYPE
-------------------- -------------------------
1.95057.6            No Compression

So again, in this case, it is clearly a direct path insert, but HCC is not applied.

So what about the older SYS_DL_CURSOR hint. Well the short story is it doesn’t do a real direct path load, so it doesn’t work with HCC. Here’s a quick demonstration (back in a regular user account).

KSO@dbm1> !cat bulk_insert2.sql
CREATE TABLE t1
(c1    NUMBER,
 c2    NUMBER,
 c3    VARCHAR2(50),
 c4    VARCHAR2(50),
 c5    DATE,
 c6    DATE)
compress for query high;

DECLARE
  -- Define a collection
  TYPE t1_tbl_type IS TABLE OF t1%ROWTYPE;
  t1_tbl    t1_tbl_type := t1_tbl_type();
BEGIN

  -- Populate the collection
  FOR i IN 1..32000 LOOP
    t1_tbl.EXTEND;
    t1_tbl(i).c1 := i;
    t1_tbl(i).c2 := i*i;
    t1_tbl(i).c3 := 'i=' || TO_CHAR(i);
    t1_tbl(i).c4 := 'i*i=' || TO_CHAR(i*i);
    t1_tbl(i).c5 := SYSDATE;
    t1_tbl(i).c6 := SYSDATE;
  END LOOP;

  -- Bulk Insert the collection into table T1
  FORALL i IN 1..t1_tbl.COUNT
    INSERT /*+ sys_dl_cursor */ INTO t1
      (c1,
       c2,
       c3,
       c4,
       c5,
       c6)
    VALUES
      (t1_tbl(i).c1,
       t1_tbl(i).c2,
       t1_tbl(i).c3,
       t1_tbl(i).c4,
       t1_tbl(i).c5,
       t1_tbl(i).c6);

END;
/

KSO@dbm1> drop table t1;

Table dropped.

KSO@dbm1> @bulk_insert2

Table created.


PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

KSO@dbm1> select count(*) from t1;

  COUNT(*)
----------
     32000

KSO@dbm1> -- Not a good sign 
KSO@dbm1> -- direct path should not allow a select without a commit or rollback
KSO@dbm1> -- let's check anyway
KSO@dbm1> select rowid from t1 where rownum < 10;

ROWID
------------------
AAARlzAAIAAB/krAAA
AAARlzAAIAAB/krAAB
AAARlzAAIAAB/krAAC
AAARlzAAIAAB/krAAD
AAARlzAAIAAB/krAAE
AAARlzAAIAAB/krAAF
AAARlzAAIAAB/krAAG
AAARlzAAIAAB/krAAH
AAARlzAAIAAB/krAAI

9 rows selected.

KSO@dbm1> @check_row_comp.sql
Enter value for owner: KSO
Enter value for table_namr: T1
Enter value for rowid: AAARlzAAIAAB/krAAG

OLD_ROWID            COMPRESSION_TYPE
-------------------- -------------------------
8.522539.6           No Compression

So no love with SYS_DL_CURSOR. Of course you can still do the more normal, load, alter table move, exchange partition type processing. As always, please let me know if you any questions or comments.