XMLTable join causes parallel query not to work

Question

We have a large table, a column stores xml data as binary xmltype storage, and XMLTABLE query is used to extract the data.
If we just need to extract data into a column, and the data has no relation with other data columns, XMLTABLE query is super fast.
Once the data has parent -> children relationship with other columns, the query becomes extremely slow. From the query plan, we could observe that the parallel execution is gone.
I can reproduce the problem with the following scripts:
1. Test scripts to setup
=============================
-- Test table
drop table test_xml;
CREATE table test_xml
( period date,
xml_content xmltype)
XMLTYPE COLUMN xml_content STORE AS SECUREFILE BINARY XML (
STORAGE ( INITIAL 64K )
enable storage in row
nocache
nologging
chunk 8K
parallel
compress;
-- Populate test_xml table with some records for testing
insert into test_xml (period, xml_content)
select sysdate, xmltype('<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<searchresult>
<hotels>
<hotel>
<hotel.id>10</hotel.id>
<roomtypes>
<roomtype>
<roomtype.ID>20</roomtype.ID>
<rooms>
<room>
<id>30</id>
<meals>
<meal>
<id>Breakfast</id>
<price>300</price>
</meal>
<meal>
<id>Dinner</id>
<price>600</price>
</meal>
</meals>
</room>
</rooms>
</roomtype>
</roomtypes>
</hotel>
</hotels>
</searchresult>') from dual;
commit;
begin
for i in 1 .. 10
loop
insert into test_xml select * from test_xml;
end loop;
commit;
end;
select count(*) from test_xml;
-- 1024
2. Fast query. Only extract room_id info, the plan shows parallel execution. The performance is very good.
=================================================================
explain plan for
select *
from test_xml,
XMLTABLE ('/searchresult/hotels/hotel/roomtypes/roomtype/rooms/room'
passing xml_content
COLUMNS
room_id varchar2(4000) PATH './id/text()'
) a;
select * from table(dbms_xplan.display());
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time | TQ |IN-OUT| PQ Distrib |
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 8364K| 15G| 548 (1)| 00:00:07 | | | |
| 1 | PX COORDINATOR | | | | | | | | |
| 2 | PX SEND QC (RANDOM) | :TQ10000 | 8364K| 15G| 548 (1)| 00:00:07 | Q1,00 | P->S | QC (RAND) |
| 3 | NESTED LOOPS | | 8364K| 15G| 548 (1)| 00:00:07 | Q1,00 | PCWP | |
| 4 | PX BLOCK ITERATOR | | | | | | Q1,00 | PCWC | |
| 5 | TABLE ACCESS FULL| TEST_XML | 1024 | 2011K| 2 (0)| 00:00:01 | Q1,00 | PCWP | |
| 6 | XPATH EVALUATION | | | | | | Q1,00 | PCWP | |
3. The slow query. To extract room_id plus meal ids, no parallel execution. Performance is vert bad.
==============================================================
-- One room can have multiple meal ids
explain plan for
select *
from test_xml,
XMLTABLE ('/searchresult/hotels/hotel/roomtypes/roomtype/rooms/room'
passing xml_content
COLUMNS
room_id varchar2(4000) PATH './id/text()'
, meals_node xmltype path './meals'
) a,
XMLTABLE ('./meals/meal'
passing meals_node
COLUMNS
meals_ids varchar2(4000) PATH './id/text()'
) b;
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 68G| 125T| 33M (1)|112:33:52 |
| 1 | NESTED LOOPS | | 68G| 125T| 33M (1)|112:33:52 |
| 2 | NESTED LOOPS | | 8364K| 15G| 676 (1)| 00:00:09 |
| 3 | TABLE ACCESS FULL| TEST_XML | 1024 | 2011K| 2 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 4 | XPATH EVALUATION | | | | | |
| 5 | XPATH EVALUATION | | | | | |
Is the xml binary storage designed to only solve non-parent-children relationships data?
I would hightly appreciate if someone could help.

Answer 1

This problem has been confirmed as an oracle bug, currently the bug is not fixed yet.
Bug 16752984 : PARALLEL EXECUTION NOT WORKING WITH XMLTYPE COLUMN