Primary Keys and Non-Unique Indexes (What’s Really Happening ?)

Based on this OTN thread, it appears there may still be folk out there that think Oracle uses Unique Indexes to police a Primary Key (or Unique Key) constraint. This is of course not necessarily true as since 8.0 and the introduction of Deferrable Constraints, Oracle can just as easily police a PK (or UK) constraint with a Non-Unique Index.

To determine whether a new PK value currently exists or not, Oracle can almost (although not quite) just as easily perform an index look-up using a Non-Unique Index as it can with a Unique Index. Simple index look-up, is the value there, yes or no, proceed as appropriate.

Indeed, I’ve already discussed on these here pages various differences between using a Unique and a Non-Unique Index:

https://richardfoote.wordpress.com/2007/12/18/differences-between-unique-and-non-unique-indexes-part-i/

https://richardfoote.wordpress.com/2007/12/21/differences-between-unique-and-non-unique-indexes-part-ii/

https://richardfoote.wordpress.com/2007/12/30/differences-between-unique-and-non-unique-indexes-part-iii/

However, for those that may never have seen a case where creating a PK constraint has not created a Unique index, I thought it might be an idea to just go through a number of different scenarios when this is all quite possible.

The first example is when there’s already an existing non-unique index that Oracle can use. Oracle will not (and indeed can not) create a Unique Index where an identical Non-Unique index already exists.

SQL> create table bowie as select rownum id, ‘BOWIE’ text from dual connect by level <= 10000;

 

Table created.

 

SQL> create index bowie_i on bowie(id);

 

Index created.

 

SQL> alter table bowie add constraint bowie_pk primary key(id);

 

Table altered.

 

SQL> select ic.index_name, ic.column_name, i.uniqueness, c.constraint_name, c.constraint_type from user_ind_columns ic, user_indexes i, user_constraints c where ic.index_name = i.index_name and i.index_name = c.index_name and i.index_name =  ‘BOWIE_I’;

 

INDEX_NAME COL_NAME UNIQUENES CON_NAME C
---------- -------- --------- -------- -
BOWIE_I    ID       NONUNIQUE BOWIE_PK P

A subtle difference to this scenario is where there’s an existing Non-Unique index but it only has the leading columns the same as the PK constraint to be. Again, even if there are additional columns within the index, the fact the leading columns match the PK constraint means Oracle can still use the index to police the constraint as the index must be in the same logical order of these leading columns.

For example:

SQL> alter table bowie drop primary key;

 

Table altered.

 

SQL> drop index bowie_i;

 

Index dropped.

 

SQL> create index bowie_i on bowie(id, text);

 

Index created.

 

SQL> alter table bowie add constraint bowie_pk primary key(id);

 

Table altered.

 

SQL> select ic.index_name, ic.column_name, i.uniqueness, c.constraint_name, c.constraint_type from user_ind_columns ic, user_indexes i, user_constraints c where ic.index_name = i.index_name and i.index_name = c.index_name and i.index_name = ‘BOWIE_I’;

 

INDEX_NAME COL_NAME UNIQUENES CON_NAME C
---------- -------- --------- -------- -
BOWIE_I    TEXT     NONUNIQUE BOWIE_PK P
BOWIE_I    ID       NONUNIQUE BOWIE_PK P

Another example is when the PK constraint is created as being DEFERRABLE. This means the constraint could be used to defer the policing of the constraint until the time of the COMMIT, rather than at the time of the DML statement. As such, for a period of time during a transaction, there could actually be duplicate values for the PK. Not only will Oracle create a Non-Unique index for such a Deferrable constraint, indeed Oracle MUST create a non-unique index. The existance of a previously created Unique Index will actually prevent Oracle from creating PK constraint as deferrable.

SQL> alter table bowie drop primary key;

 

Table altered.

 

SQL> drop index bowie_i;

 

Index dropped.

 

SQL> alter table bowie add constraint bowie_pk primary key(id) deferrable;

 

Table altered.

 

SQL> select ic.index_name, ic.column_name, i.uniqueness, c.constraint_name, c.constraint_type from user_ind_columns ic, user_indexes i, user_constraints c where ic.index_name = i.index_name and i.index_name = c.index_name and i.table_name = ‘BOWIE’;

 

INDEX_NAME COL_NAME UNIQUENES CON_NAME C
---------- -------- --------- -------- -
BOWIE_PK   ID       NONUNIQUE BOWIE_PK P

Of course, another way to create a Non-Unique Index when defining a PK constraint is to simply create the specific index at the same time as the PK constraint. You can get pretty tricky with the create table syntax these days.

For example:

SQL> alter table bowie drop primary key;

 

Table altered.

 

SQL> drop index bowie_pk;

 

Index dropped.

 

SQL> alter table bowie add constraint bowie_pk primary key(id) using index (create index bowie_i on bowie(id));

 

Table altered.

 

SQL> select ic.index_name, ic.column_name, i.uniqueness, c.constraint_name, c.constraint_type from user_ind_columns ic, user_indexes i, user_constraints c where ic.index_name = i.index_name and i.index_name = c.index_name and i.table_name = ‘BOWIE’;

 

INDEX_NAME COL_NAME UNIQUENES CON_NAME C
---------- -------- --------- -------- -
BOWIE_I    ID       NONUNIQUE BOWIE_PK P

The next time you read or hear mentioned Oracle uses a Unique Index to police a PK (or UK) constraint, you now know it might not necessarily be the case.