How to tune something doing nothing?

To end this year in glory, I tried to replace a row-level trigger (LSC_TR1) into a statement level trigger (LSC_TR2)


SQL> create global temporary table lsc_t1(x number primary key)
2 on commit delete rows;
Table created.
SQL> create table lsc_t2(x number primary key);
Table created.
SQL> create table lsc_t3(x number primary key);
Table created.
SQL> create or replace function f return number deterministic is
2 begin sys.dbms_lock.sleep(1); return 10; end;
3 /
Function created.
SQL> create or replace trigger lsc_tr1 after insert on lsc_t1 for each row
2 begin
3 if (:new.x > f)
4 then
5 insert into lsc_t2(x) values (:new.x);
6 end if;
7 end;
8 /
Trigger created.
SQL> create or replace trigger lsc_tr2 after insert on lsc_t1
2 begin
3 insert into lsc_t2(x) select x from lsc_t1 where x > f;
4 end;
5 /
Trigger created.
SQL> insert into lsc_t3 values(1);
1 row created.
SQL> insert into lsc_t3 values(5);
1 row created.
SQL> insert into lsc_t3 values(20);
1 row created.
SQL> insert into lsc_t3 values(50);
1 row created.
SQL> insert into lsc_t3 values(100);
1 row created.
SQL> insert into lsc_t3 values(200);
1 row created.
SQL> insert into lsc_t3 values(1000);
1 row created.
SQL> commit;
Commit complete.
SQL> alter trigger lsc_tr1 enable;
Trigger altered.
SQL> alter trigger lsc_tr2 disable;
Trigger altered.
SQL> insert into lsc_t1(x) select x from lsc_t3;
7 rows created.
Elapsed: 00:00:07.05


The current trigger LSC_TR1 is very slow, it is doing some processing after each row. Since it is a temporary staging table, it makes no sense to process each row, I have written the trigger LSC_TR2 to boost the performance.

Have a look.


SQL> truncate table lsc_t2;
Table truncated.
SQL> alter trigger lsc_tr1 disable;
Trigger altered.
SQL> alter trigger lsc_tr2 enable;
Trigger altered.
SQL> insert into lsc_t1(x) select x from lsc_t3;
7 rows created.
Elapsed: 00:00:01.03


Much faster ! LSC_TR1 just takes ages. What a glorious year 2008 🙂

Well, the table LSC_T3 is empty most of the time, and the insert is running again and again…


SQL> truncate table lsc_t3;
Table truncated.
SQL> alter trigger lsc_tr1 enable;
Trigger altered.
SQL> alter trigger lsc_tr2 disable;
Trigger altered.
SQL> insert into lsc_t1(x) select x from lsc_t3;
0 rows created.
Elapsed: 00:00:00.01
SQL> alter trigger lsc_tr1 disable;
Trigger altered.
SQL> alter trigger lsc_tr2 enable;
Trigger altered.
SQL> insert into lsc_t1(x) select x from lsc_t3;
0 rows created.
Elapsed: 00:00:01.03


Suddenly my tuning exercice turned to be a disaster, in this example it is about 63 times slower 🙁

I could possibly count the rows in the LSC_TR2 trigger, but then it will still be a bit slower when processing very few rows (in this example with 1 row).

So I will keep this AFTER EACH ROW trigger until next year 😉