SQL*Plus Not Responding

Question

I have a query in 8i that sums the pages entered into a database by month as follows:
SELECT DISTINCT c.study
, DECODE(r.pass_one_by, NULL, SUBSTR(s.entered_by, 5), SUBSTR(r.pass_one_by, 5)) p1_by
,SUM(DECODE(TO_CHAR(TRUNC(r.pass_one_ts),'MON'),'JAN',1,NULL,DECODE(TO_CHAR(TRUNC(s.received_dci_entry_ts),'MON'),'JAN',1),0)) JAN
,SUM(DECODE(TO_CHAR(TRUNC(r.pass_one_ts),'MON'),'FEB',1,NULL,DECODE(TO_CHAR(TRUNC(s.received_dci_entry_ts),'MON'),'FEB',1),0)) FEB
--- etc
FROM received_dcms r, received_dcis s, clinical_studies c
WHERE r.clinical_study_id = s.clinical_study_id
AND s.clinical_study_id = c.clinical_study_id
AND r.document_number = s.document_number
---other obvious joins
I need the received_dcis table to capture information for blank pages, but this table is heavily used (updated) and the report hangs when it's included. In fact, the Windows Task Manager say that SQL*Plus is "Not Responding". Is there any way around this?
Thanks,
Dane

Answer 1

Hi!
Quite possible SQL*Plus is working fine, but the problem is with the query itself. When running the report check v$session, v$sql & v$sess_io views. If v$sess_io reports changing consistent_gets & physical_reads, then your query is reading data. Check explain plan, run tkprof, etc. and make sure that query is properly tuned and used best execution plan possible.
Regards,
Andrew Velitchko
BrainBench MVP for Developer/2000
http://www.brainbench.com