Richard Foote's Oracle Blog

12.2 Index Advanced Compression “High” Part II (One Of My Turns) December 12, 2016

In Part I, I introduced the new Index Advanced Compression default value of “HIGH”, which has the potential to significantly compress indexes much more than previously possible. This is due to new index compression algorithms that do more than simply de-duplicate indexed values within a leaf block.

Previously, any attempt to completely compress a Unique Index was doomed to failure as a Unique Index by definition only has unique values and so has nothing to de-duplicate. As such, you were previously restricted (quite rightly) to only being able to compress n-1 columns within a Unique Index. An attempt compress all columns in a Unique Index would only result in a larger index structure due to the associated overheads of the prefix-table within the leaf blocks.

But what happens if we now use Index Advanced Compression set to “HIGH” on a Unique Index ?

Let’s see.

Let’s first create a simple table with a unique ID column:

SQL> create table bowie (id number, code number, name varchar2(42));

Table created.

SQL> insert into bowie select rownum, rownum, 'ZIGGY STARDUST' from dual connect by level <= 1000000;

1000000 rows created.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

Let’s start by creating an uncompressed unique index on the ID column:

SQL> create unique index bowie_id_i on bowie(id);

Index created.

SQL> select index_name, leaf_blocks, compression from user_indexes where index_name='BOWIE_ID_I';

INDEX_NAME   LEAF_BLOCKS COMPRESSION
------------ ----------- -------------
BOWIE_ID_I          2088 DISABLED

So the uncompressed unique index has 2088 leaf blocks.

If we try and use normal compression on the index:

SQL> alter index bowie_id_i rebuild compress;
alter index bowie_id_i rebuild compress
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-25193: cannot use COMPRESS option for a single column key

We get an error saying we’re not allowed to compress a single column unique index. Doing so makes no sense, as there’s no benefit in de-duplicating such an index.

If we attempt to use advanced index compression with a value of “LOW”:

SQL> alter index bowie_id_i rebuild compress advanced low;
alter index bowie_id_i rebuild compress advanced low
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-25193: cannot use COMPRESS option for a single column key

We get the same error. Although advanced index compression of LOW is clever enough to automatically compress only those leaf blocks where there is a benefit in compression, there can be no such index leaf block that benefits from compression via the de-duplication method. Therefore, the error is really there to just let you know that you’re wasting your time in attempting to do this on a unique index.

If however we use the new HIGH option with index advanced compression:

SQL> alter index bowie_code_i rebuild compress advanced high;

Index altered.

SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_index_stats(ownname=>null, indname=>'BOWIE_ID_I');

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL> select index_name, leaf_blocks, compression from user_indexes where index_name='BOWIE_ID_I';

INDEX_NAME   LEAF_BLOCKS COMPRESSION
------------ ----------- -------------
BOWIE_ID_I           965 ADVANCED HIGH

Not only does it not give us an error, but it has actually managed to successfully compress such a unique index containing nothing but a bunch of unique numbers to just 965 leaf blocks, down from 2088. The index is now less than half its previous size.

So any Oracle B-tree index, even if it’s a single column unique index, is a possible candidate to be compressed with “High” advanced index compression.

More to come.

12.2 Index Advanced Compression “High” – Part I (High Hopes) December 6, 2016

Oracle first introduced Advanced Compression for Indexes in 12.1 as I’ve discussed here a number of times.

With Oracle Database 12c Release 2, you can now use Index Advanced Compression “High” to further (and potentially dramatically) improve the index compression ratio.  Instead of simply de-duplicating the index entries within an index leaf block, High Index Compression uses more complex compression algorithms and stores the index entries in a Compression Unit (similar to that as used with Hybrid Columnar Compression). The net result is generally a much better level of compression, but at the potential cost of more CPU resources to both access and maintain the index structures.

To give you an idea on the possible compression improvements, let’s re-run the demo I used previously when I first discussed Advanced Index Compression.

So I first create a table, where the CODE column that has many distinct values, but a portion (25%) of data that is replicated:

SQL> create table bowie (id number, code number, name varchar2(30));

Table created.

SQL> insert into bowie select rownum, rownum, 'ZIGGY STARDUST' from dual connect by level <= 1000000;

1000000 rows created.

SQL> update bowie set code = 42 where id between 250000 and 499999;

250000 rows updated.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

I then create an index on the CODE column and check out its initial size:

SQL> create index bowie_code_i on bowie(code);

Index created.

SQL> select index_name, leaf_blocks, compression from user_indexes where table_name='BOWIE';

INDEX_NAME   LEAF_BLOCKS COMPRESSION
------------ ----------- -------------
BOWIE_CODE_I        2158 DISABLED

If I just use normal compression on this index:

SQL> alter index bowie_code_i rebuild compress;

Index altered.

SQL> select index_name, leaf_blocks, compression from user_indexes where table_name='BOWIE';

INDEX_NAME   LEAF_BLOCKS COMPRESSION
------------ ----------- -------------
BOWIE_CODE_I        2684 ENABLED

We notice the index actually increases in size (2684 up from 2158), as most (75%) of the CODE values are unique and so the overheads associated with the resultant prefix table in the leaf blocks used with normal index compression overrides the savings of compression on the 25% of the index where compression is beneficial.

If we use “Low” advanced index compression as introduced in 12.1:

SQL> alter index bowie_code_i rebuild compress advanced low;

Index altered.

SQL> select index_name, leaf_blocks, compression from user_indexes where table_name='BOWIE';

INDEX_NAME   LEAF_BLOCKS COMPRESSION
------------ ----------- -------------
BOWIE_CODE_I        2057 ADVANCED LOW

We notice the index has now indeed decreased in size (2057 down from 2158), as Oracle has automatically compressed just the 25% of the index where compression was beneficial and not touched the 75% of the index where compression wasn’t possible when de-duplicating values.

If we now however use the new 12.2 Advanced Index Compression “High” option:

SQL> alter index bowie_code_i rebuild compress advanced high;

Index altered.

SQL> select index_name, leaf_blocks, compression from user_indexes where table_name='BOWIE';

INDEX_NAME   LEAF_BLOCKS COMPRESSION
------------ ----------- -------------
BOWIE_CODE_I           0 ADVANCED HIGH

Wow, an index with now no leaf blocks, that’s unbelievably small. Actually, I don’t believe it as this is due to bug 22094934. We need to gather index statistics to see the new index size:

SQL> exec dbms_stats.gather_index_stats(ownname=>null, indname=>'BOWIE_CODE_I');

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL> select index_name, leaf_blocks, compression from user_indexes where table_name='BOWIE';

INDEX_NAME   LEAF_BLOCKS COMPRESSION
------------ ----------- -------------
BOWIE_CODE_I         815 ADVANCED HIGH

We notice that the index hasn’t just gone now a tad in size, but is now substantially smaller than before (down to just 815 leaf blocks, rather than the smaller 2057 from 2158 reduction we previously achieved with low index advanced compression.

So Index Advanced Compression, with the now default “HIGH” option can substantially reduce index sizes. Note this new capability of course requires the Advanced Compression Option.

More to come.