Sdo_filter error while trying to do results paging

Question

This is a continuation of the problem found at: Re: Problem with SDO_FILTER combined with Timestamp and Order By using JDBC
It seems that the index hint fixed most of the problems where the spatial index wasn't getting used, but it fails in the case when I try to do results paging. It seems as if the order by and sdo_filter cause problems. I've simplified the offending query down to the following below.
select ROWNUM rowcount, a.* from
(select /*+ INDEX (TRACK_SEGMENTS TRACK_SEGMENTS_SPATIAL_IDX) */ * from TRACK_SEGMENTS
where ( ( sdo_filter(GEOM, sdo_geometry(2003, 8307, null, sdo_elem_info_array(1, 1003, 3), sdo_ordinate_array(?, ?, ?, ?) ), 'MASK=ANYINTERACT') = 'TRUE' and
END_DATE >= ? and START_DATE < ?)) and (
(START_DATATYPE = 'maritime_dense'))
ORDER BY ID
) a
I've tried adding a global hint such as INDEX (a.TRACK_SEGMENTS TRACK_SEGMENTS_SPATIAL_IDX) and I've also tried joining the spatial index and the primary key "ID" index. But no matter what I've tried, the spatial index is not used and it results in the following error:
java.sql.SQLException: ORA-01422: exact fetch returns more than requested number of rows
ORA-06512: at "MDSYS.SDO_3GL", line 1320
     at oracle.jdbc.driver.DatabaseError.throwSqlException(DatabaseError.java:112)
     at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CTTIoer.processError(T4CTTIoer.java:331)
     at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CTTIoer.processError(T4CTTIoer.java:288)
     at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4C8Oall.receive(T4C8Oall.java:743)
     at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CPreparedStatement.doOall8(T4CPreparedStatement.java:216)
     at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CPreparedStatement.executeForRows(T4CPreparedStatement.java:955)
     at oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleStatement.executeMaybeDescribe(OracleStatement.java:1062)
     at oracle.jdbc.driver.T4CPreparedStatement.executeMaybeDescribe(T4CPreparedStatement.java:839)
     at oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleStatement.doExecuteWithTimeout(OracleStatement.java:1132)
     at oracle.jdbc.driver.OraclePreparedStatement.executeInternal(OraclePreparedStatement.java:3285)
     at oracle.jdbc.driver.OraclePreparedStatement.execute(OraclePreparedStatement.java:3390)
     at QueryTester.main(QueryTester.java:61)
As an extra wrinkle, if I take that exact same query and run it from sql developer rather a java class and jdbc, it runs just fine.
Thanks in advance for your help,
Jim

Answer 1

1. Oracle optimizer is cost-based, so sometime it may think other non-spatial predicates
are more selective or give more performance.
2. I don't know. Are you sure that it is the same query, and the same-sized table?
Maybe some optimizer parameters are different in the two environments.
3. I think that the real problem is with the order by clause. If the optimizer chooses
a non-spatial index for the order by clause, it may not choose the spatial index.
For other indexes (say a index on START_DATE), you don't have to specify the
NO_INDEX hint.
Another way to avoid specifying the NO_INDEX hint:
select /*+ NO_MERGE(a) */
ROWNUM rowcount, a.* from
(select /*+ INDEX (TRACK_SEGMENTS TRACK_SEGMENTS_SPATIAL_IDX) */ * from TRACK_SEGMENTS
where ( ( sdo_filter(GEOM, sdo_geometry(2003, 8307, null, sdo_elem_info_array(1, 1003, 3), sdo_ordinate_array(?, ?, ?, ?) ), 'MASK=ANYINTERACT') = 'TRUE' and
END_DATE >= ? and START_DATE < ?)) and (
(START_DATATYPE = 'maritime_dense'))) a
ORDER BY a.ID