Function Based Index on Date Column

Question

Hi All,
I need to execute a query like this :
SELECT * FROM ORDERS WHERE APPROVE_DATE IS NULL
I read anywhere that this will cause unnecessary FTS so that I should create function based index.
I have tried one below , but not sure that this is correct approach :
CREATE INDEX idx_1
ON ORDERS (NVL(APPROVE_DATE, '01-JAN-1900'));
SELECT * FROM ORDERS WHERE NVL(APPROVE_DATE, '01-JAN-1900') = '01-JAN-1900'
Is this a correct approach ?
Thank you,
xtanto

Answer 1

A SQL_TRACE output will explain clearly what Justin has stated.
I have created a table T based on all_objects.
SQL> desc t
Name                                      Null?    Type
OWNER                                     NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
OBJECT_NAME                               NOT NULL VARCHAR2(30)
SUBOBJECT_NAME                                     VARCHAR2(30)
OBJECT_ID                                 NOT NULL NUMBER
DATA_OBJECT_ID                                     NUMBER
OBJECT_TYPE                                        VARCHAR2(19)
CREATED                                            DATE
LAST_DDL_TIME                             NOT NULL DATE
TIMESTAMP                                          VARCHAR2(19)
STATUS                                             VARCHAR2(7)
TEMPORARY                                          VARCHAR2(1)
GENERATED                                          VARCHAR2(1)
SECONDARY                                          VARCHAR2(1)
CASE I_
SQL> select count(1) from t
  2  /
  COUNT(1)
    934320
SQL> select count(1) from t where created is null
  2  /
  COUNT(1)
      2376The number of null values in CREATED column is proportionately very small.
Now i execute the query without function based index.
select *
  from t
where created is null
call     count       cpu    elapsed       disk      query    current        rows
Parse        1      0.00       0.09          0          0          0           0
Execute      1      0.00       0.00          0          0          0           0
Fetch      160      0.04       0.10          0      12662          0        2376
total      162      0.04       0.19          0      12662          0        2376
Rows     Execution Plan
      0  SELECT STATEMENT   GOAL: ALL_ROWS
   2376   TABLE ACCESS   GOAL: ANALYZED (FULL) OF 'T' (TABLE)And here is the query that uses the function based index
select *
  from t
where nvl(created,to_date('01-01-1900','DD-MM-YYYY')) = to_date('01-01-1900','DD-MM-YYYY')
call     count       cpu    elapsed       disk      query    current        rows
Parse        1      0.01       0.00          0          0          0           0
Execute      1      0.00       0.00          0          0          0           0
Fetch      160      0.01       0.01          0        698          0        2376
total      162      0.03       0.01          0        698          0        2376
Rows     Execution Plan
      0  SELECT STATEMENT   GOAL: ALL_ROWS
   2376   TABLE ACCESS   GOAL: ANALYZED (BY INDEX ROWID) OF 'T' (TABLE)
   2376    INDEX   GOAL: ANALYZED (RANGE SCAN) OF 'T_FN_IDX' (INDEX)Its very obvious from the above output that the Function Based Index as increased the performance.
CASE II_
SQL> select count(1) from t
  2  /
  COUNT(1)
    934320
SQL> select count(1) from t where created is null
  2  /
  COUNT(1)
    202168Now the null values in the CREATED column is proportionately large than the first test case.
Now lets see without using the function based index
select *
  from t
where created is null
call     count       cpu    elapsed       disk      query    current        rows
Parse        1      0.00       0.00          0          0          0           0
Execute      1      0.00       0.00          0          0          0           0
Fetch    13479      0.46       0.71          2      25832          0      202168
total    13481      0.46       0.71          2      25832          0      202168
Rows     Execution Plan
      0  SELECT STATEMENT   GOAL: ALL_ROWS
202168   TABLE ACCESS   GOAL: ANALYZED (FULL) OF 'T' (TABLE)Now iam trying to use the function based index
select *
  from t
where nvl(created,to_date('01-01-1900','DD-MM-YYYY')) = to_date('01-01-1900','DD-MM-YYYY')
call     count       cpu    elapsed       disk      query    current        rows
Parse        1      0.00       0.00          0          0          0           0
Execute      1      0.00       0.00          0          0          0           0
Fetch    13479      0.54       0.84          0      33826          0      202168
total    13481      0.54       0.84          0      33826          0      202168
Rows     Execution Plan
      0  SELECT STATEMENT   GOAL: ALL_ROWS
202168   TABLE ACCESS   GOAL: ANALYZED (FULL) OF 'T' (TABLE)Its obvious from the result that oracle has decided to go for a FULL TABLE SCAN even when an index was available.
So just having a function based index is not going to increase the query performance. There are lot of other factors to be considered as stated above.
Thanks,
Karthick.