On star transformation

How to configure a schema to support a star transformation query?

This is one of the topic I am currently preparing for the OCM DBA 11g upgrade exam for 9i OCM’s.

Let’s create a star schema with a fact table T1 and two dimension tables T2 and T3 :

> create table t2(y number constraint t2_pk primary key, yy varchar2(50))
table t2 created.
> create table t3(z number constraint t3_pk primary key, zz varchar2(50))
table t3 created.
> create table t1(x number constraint t1_pk primary key,
y number constraint t1_t2_fk references t2,
z number constraint t1_t3_fk references t3)
table t1 created.

According to the Oracle Database Data Warehousing Guide, chapter 20 Schema Modeling Techniques
A prerequisite of the star transformation is that there be a single-column bitmap index on every join column of the fact table. These join columns include all foreign key columns.


> create bitmap index bi1 on t1(y)
bitmap index bi1 created.
> create bitmap index bi2 on t1(z)
bitmap index bi2 created.
> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(user,'t1',cascade=>true)
anonymous block completed
> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(user,'t2',cascade=>true)
anonymous block completed
> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(user,'t3',cascade=>true)
anonymous block completed

Obviously the star_transformation_enabled must be set to true. It was known as buggy in the first releases, I hope most bugs have been fixed in the meantime.

> alter session set star_transformation_enabled=true
session set altered

Let’s try the transformation with a query similar to the one found in the doc :

> set autotrace on exp
Autotrace Enabled
Displays the execution plan only.
> select count(*) from t1 natural join t2 natural join t3
where yy='one' and zz in ('two','three')
COUNT(*)
----------------------
0

Plan hash value: 3024982001

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 1 | 106 | 1 (100)| 00:00:01 |
| 1 | SORT AGGREGATE | | 1 | 106 | | |
| 2 | NESTED LOOPS | | | | | |
| 3 | NESTED LOOPS | | 1 | 106 | 1 (100)| 00:00:01 |
| 4 | NESTED LOOPS | | 1 | 66 | 1 (100)| 00:00:01 |
| 5 | VIEW | index$_join$_001 | 1 | 26 | 1 (100)| 00:00:01 |
|* 6 | HASH JOIN | | | | | |
| 7 | BITMAP CONVERSION TO ROWIDS| | 1 | 26 | 0 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 8 | BITMAP INDEX FULL SCAN | BI1 | | | | |
| 9 | BITMAP CONVERSION TO ROWIDS| | 1 | 26 | 0 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 10 | BITMAP INDEX FULL SCAN | BI2 | | | | |
|* 11 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID | T2 | 1 | 40 | 0 (0)| 00:00:01 |
|* 12 | INDEX UNIQUE SCAN | T2_PK | 1 | | 0 (0)| 00:00:01 |
|* 13 | INDEX UNIQUE SCAN | T3_PK | 1 | | 0 (0)| 00:00:01 |
|* 14 | TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID | T3 | 1 | 40 | 0 (0)| 00:00:01 |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------

6 - access(ROWID=ROWID)
11 - filter("T2"."YY"='one')
12 - access("T1"."Y"="T2"."Y")
13 - access("T1"."Z"="T3"."Z")
14 - filter("T3"."ZZ"='three' OR "T3"."ZZ"='two')

> set autotrace off
Autotrace Disabled

Something is missing. The star transformation is not used. What could it be???

Data !

We need to load trucks of data in the T1 table and a few rows in the T2 and T3 tables

> insert into t2 select rownum,
to_char(to_timestamp(to_char(rownum/1e9,'.000000000'),'.ff'),'ffsp')
from dual connect by level<11 10 rows inserted. > insert into t3 select rownum,
to_char(to_timestamp(to_char(rownum/1e9,'.000000000'),'.ff'),'ffsp')
from dual connect by level<11 10 rows inserted. > insert into t1 select rownum, mod(rownum,7)+1, mod(rownum,8)+1
from dual connect by level<100001 100,000 rows inserted. > commit
commited.
> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(user,'t1',cascade=>true)
anonymous block completed
> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(user,'t2',cascade=>true)
anonymous block completed
> exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(user,'t3',cascade=>true)
anonymous block completed

Let’s try the same query again

> set autotrace on exp
Autotrace Enabled
Displays the execution plan only.
> select count(*) from t1 natural join t2 natural join t3
where yy='one' and zz in ('two','three')
COUNT(*)
----------------------
3570

Plan hash value: 3170767457

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 1 | 6 | 12 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 1 | SORT AGGREGATE | | 1 | 6 | | |
| 2 | BITMAP CONVERSION COUNT | | 2857 | 17142 | 6 (0)| 00:00:01 |
| 3 | BITMAP AND | | | | | |
| 4 | BITMAP MERGE | | | | | |
| 5 | BITMAP KEY ITERATION | | | | | |
|* 6 | TABLE ACCESS FULL | T2 | 1 | 8 | 3 (0)| 00:00:01 |
|* 7 | BITMAP INDEX RANGE SCAN| BI1 | | | | |
| 8 | BITMAP MERGE | | | | | |
| 9 | BITMAP KEY ITERATION | | | | | |
|* 10 | TABLE ACCESS FULL | T3 | 2 | 16 | 3 (0)| 00:00:01 |
|* 11 | BITMAP INDEX RANGE SCAN| BI2 | | | | |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------

6 - filter("T2"."YY"='one')
7 - access("T1"."Y"="T2"."Y")
10 - filter("T3"."ZZ"='three' OR "T3"."ZZ"='two')
11 - access("T1"."Z"="T3"."Z")

Note
-----
- star transformation used for this statement

> set autotrace off
Autotrace Disabled

That’s it ! I have 100K rows in my fact table and 10 rows in my dimension tables, that does the trick ! Star transformation needs a lot of rows to work 🙂

5 thoughts on “On star transformation

  1. Bernard Polarski

    This is a very affordable demonstration of star transformation. Thanks!

  2. Barbara Boehmer

    Nice demonstration! However, I have just been informed (by John Watson on the OraFAQ forums) that 11g no longer requires bitmap indexes for star transformation. When I substitute b-tree indexes for your bitmap indexes, I still get a star transformation in 11g.

  3. Joe Gharibian

    Thank in advance for answering my question.

    I am mostly interested in this comment “that 11g no longer requires bitmap indexes for star transformation. When I substitute b-tree indexes for your bitmap indexes..”
    We are converting our PK indexes to use bitmap, knowing that is what Oracle suggests in DW. And also to take advantage of the start formation during execution. Those this work as well for no bitmap indexes in PKs? Doesn’t Oracle still convert the B-Tree indexes – the row ids to bitmap at the execution time?
    Which one is more efficient? If Oracle uses start schemas for b-tree indexes, should we still convert all our PK indexes to bitmap?
    Also you need to have the database parameter star_tranformation = TRUE if we want star transformations to work correct? I turned it on for our Data Warehouse globaley and some queries ran a lot longer, that forced me to turn it off.
    Thanks,
    Joe

  4. Anonymous

    Amazing Document. Very nice and precise demonstration of star transformation!!
    Thanks,
    Vikas

  5. Pingback: OCM 11g upgrade | Laurent Schneider

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