What's the meaning of Stats Tables?

Question

Hi,
I'm trying to use the DBMS_STATS for gathering statistics.
I've launched the following:
BEGIN
dbms_stats.create_stat_table (ownname=>'MYOWNER',stattab=>'STAT_TAB');
dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(ownname=>'MYOWNER',tabname=>'MYTABLE',stattab=>'STAT_TAB');
END;
and when I go and watch the STAT_TAB table I find it's been created with this description:
SQL> desc STAT_TAB
Name                                      Null?    Type
STATID                                             VARCHAR2(30)
TYPE                                               CHAR(1)
VERSION                                            NUMBER
FLAGS                                              NUMBER
C1                                                 VARCHAR2(30)
C2                                                 VARCHAR2(30)
C3                                                 VARCHAR2(30)
C4                                                 VARCHAR2(30)
C5                                                 VARCHAR2(30)
N1                                                 NUMBER
N2                                                 NUMBER
N3                                                 NUMBER
N4                                                 NUMBER
N5                                                 NUMBER
N6                                                 NUMBER
N7                                                 NUMBER
N8                                                 NUMBER
N9                                                 NUMBER
N10                                                NUMBER
N11                                                NUMBER
N12                                                NUMBER
D1                                                 DATE
R1                                                 RAW(32)
R2                                                 RAW(32)
CH1                                                VARCHAR2(1000)
How can I undestand the meaning of the columns? I can't get the meaning of the names Oracle has assigned by default, I suppose. My version is Oracle 8.1.7.
Thanks

Answer 1

I think the analyze command was used in 8.1.7, but I can't say that I've used it. You should be using DBMS_STATS, and the stat table will contain information regarding the stats that are collected. So the stats table will hold values like the number of rows, number of distinct rows, min value, max value, etc about each table that you gather stats on. It also depends on the settings you use, like if you have histograms on.
In 10G, the defaults for DBMS_STATS have changed so be careful with that. Some info about it here:
http://www.ora00600.com/scripts/statistics/gathering_statistics.html