187 Expression Filter Types

The Expression Filter feature is supplied with a set of predefined types and public synonyms for these types. Most of these types are used for configuring index parameters with the Expression Filter procedural APIs. The EXF$TABLE_ALIAS type is used to support expressions defined on one or more database tables.

Summary of Expression FilterTypes

Table 187-1 describes the Expression Filter object types.

All the values and names passed to the types defined in this chapter are not case sensitive. To preserve the case, you use double quotation marks around the values.

Table 187-1 Expression Filter Object Types

Object Type Name	Description
EXF$ATTRIBUTE	Specifies the stored and indexed attributes for the Expression Filter indexes
EXF$ATTRIBUTE_LIST	Specifies a list of stored and indexed attributes when configuring index parameters
EXF$INDEXOPER	Specifies a list of common operators in predicates with a stored or an indexed attribute
EXF$TABLE_ALIAS	Indicates a special form of elementary attribute used to manage expressions defined on one or more database tables
EXF$XPATH_TAG	Configures an XML element or an XML attribute for indexing a set of XPath predicates
EXF$XPATH_TAGS	Specifies a list of XML tags when configuring the Expression Filter index parameters

EXF$ATTRIBUTE

The EXF$ATTRIBUTE type is used to handle stored and indexed attributes for the Expression Filter indexes.

Syntax

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE EXF$ATTRIBUTE AS OBJECT attr_name    VARCHAR2(350),
                                               attr_oper    EXF$INDEXOPER,
                                               attr_indexed VARCHAR2(5);

Attributes

Table 187-2 EXF$ATTRIBUTE Object Type Attributes

Attribute	Description
`attr_name`	The arithmetic expression that constitutes the stored or indexed attribute
`attr_oper`	The list of common operators in the predicates with the attribute. Default value: `EXF$INDEXOPER('all')`
`attr_indexed`	`TRUE` if the attribute is indexed, else `FALSE.` Default value: `FALSE`.

Usage Notes

The EXF$ATTRIBUTE type is used to specify the stored and indexed attributes for an Expression Filter index using the DBMS_EXPFIL.DEFAULT_INDEX_PARAMETERS procedure. When values for attr_oper and attr_indexed fields are omitted during EXF$ATTRIBUTE instantiation, it is considered a stored attribute with a default value for common operators (EXF$INDEXOPER('all')).

Examples

A stored attribute with no preference on the list of common operators is represented as follows:

exf$attribute (attr_name => 'HorsePower(Model, Year)')

An indexed attribute is represented as follows:

exf$attribute (attr_name => 'HorsePower(Model, Year)', 
               attr_indexed => 'TRUE')

An indexed attribute with a list of common operators is represented as follows:

exf$attribute (attr_name => 'HorsePower(Model, Year)', 
               attr_oper => exf$indexoper('=','<','>','>=','<='), 
               attr_indexed => 'TRUE')

EXF$ATTRIBUTE_LIST

The EXF$ATTRIBUTE_LIST type is used to specify a list of stored and indexed attributes while configuring the index parameters.

Syntax

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE EXF$ATTRIBUTE_LIST as VARRAY(490) of exf$attribute;

Attributes

None.

Usage Notes

Also see the "DEFAULT_INDEX_PARAMETERS Procedure" for more information

Examples

A list of stored and indexed attributes can be represented as follows:

exf$attribute_list (
       exf$attribute (attr_name => 'Model',            
                      attr_oper => exf$indexoper('='),
                      attr_indexed => 'TRUE'),         
       exf$attribute (attr_name => 'Price', 
                      attr_oper => exf$indexoper('all'), 
                      attr_indexed => 'TRUE'), 
       exf$attribute (attr_name => 'HorsePower(Model, Year)', 
                      attr_oper => exf$indexoper('=','<','>','>=','<='), 
                      attr_indexed => 'FALSE')         
    )

EXF$INDEXOPER

The EXF$INDEXOPER type is used to specify the list of common operators in predicates with a stored or an indexed attribute.

Syntax

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE EXFSYS.EXF$INDEXOPER as VARRAY(20) of VARCHAR2(15);

The values for the EXF$INDEXOPER array are expected to be from the list in the following table:

Value	Predicate Description
=	Equality predicates
>	Greater than predicates
<	Less than predicates
>=	Greater than or equal to predicates
<=	Less than or equal to predicates
!= or <> or ^=	Not equal to predicates
`IS NULL`	`IS NULL` predicates
`IS NOT NULL`	`IS NOT NULL` predicates
`ALL`	All the operators listed in this table starting with the equality predicate through the `IS NOT NULL` predicate
`NVL`	Predicates with `NVL` (equality) operator
`LIKE`	Predicates with `LIKE` operator
`BETWEEN`	`BETWEEN` predicates

Attributes

None.

Usage Notes

A value of ALL for one of the EXF$INDEXOPER items implies that all the simple operators (=,>,<,>=,<=,!=, IS NULL, IS NOT NULL) are common in the predicates with an attribute. This value can be used along with one or more complex operators (NVL, LIKE and BETWEEN).
A predicate with a BETWEEN operator is treated as two predicates with binary operators, one with '>=' operator and another with '<=' operator. By default, only one of these operators is indexed, and the other operator is evaluated by value substitution. However, if predicates with the BETWEEN operator are common for an attribute (stored or indexed), both the binary operators resulting from the BETWEEN operator can be indexed by specifying BETWEEN in the EXF$INDEXOPER VARRAY. However, because this uses additional space in the predicate table, this operator should be used only when majority of predicates with an attribute use the BETWEEN operator.
When the LIKE operator is chosen as one of the common operators for an attribute, LIKE predicates on that attributes are indexed. Indexing a LIKE operator is beneficial only if the VARCHAR2 constant on the right-hand side of the predicate does not lead with a wild-card character. For example, indexing a LIKE operator will filter the following predicates efficiently:
```
company LIKE 'General%'
company LIKE 'Proctor%'
```
But, the following predicates are evaluated as sparse predicates in the last stage:
```
company LIKE '%Electric'
company LIKE "%Gamble'
```

Examples

An attribute with a list of common operators is represented as follows:

exf$attribute (attr_name => 'HorsePower(Model, Year)', 
               attr_oper => exf$indexoper('=','<','>','>=','<=', 'between'), 
               attr_indexed => 'TRUE')

EXF$TABLE_ALIAS

A EXF$TABLE_ALIAS type is a special form of elementary attribute that can be included in the attribute set. These attributes are used to manage expressions defined on one or more database tables.

Syntax

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE EXF$TABLE_ALIAS AS OBJECT table_name VARCHAR2(70);

Attributes

Table 187-3 EXF$TABLE_ALIAS Attribute

Attribute	Description
`table_name`	Name of the table with a possible schema extension

Usage Notes

The concept of a table alias attribute is captured in the Expression Filter dictionary and the corresponding attribute in the attribute set's object type is created with a VARCHAR2 datatype. (Also see Appendix A in Oracle Database Application Developer's Guide - Rules Manager and Expression Filter and "ADD_ELEMENTARY_ATTRIBUTE Procedures".)

Examples

For a set of expressions defined on database tables, the corresponding table alias attributes are configured as follows:

BEGIN
  DBMS_EXPFIL.ADD_ELEMENTARY_ATTRIBUTE (
                               attr_set  => 'HRAttrSet',
                               attr_name => 'EMP',
                               tab_alias => exf$table_alias('SCOTT.EMP'));
  DBMS_EXPFIL.ADD_ELEMENTARY_ATTRIBUTE (
                               attr_set  => 'HRAttrSet',
                               attr_name => 'DEPT',
                               tab_alias => exf$table_alias('DEPT'));
END;

The Expression column using the previous attribute set can store expressions of form EMP.JOB = 'Clerk' and EMP.NAME = 'Joe', where JOB and NAME are the names of the columns in the SCOTT.EMP table.

EXF$XPATH_TAG

The EXF$XPATH_TAG type is used to configure an XML element or an XML attribute for indexing a set of XPath predicates.

Syntax

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE EXF$XPATH_TAG AS OBJECT tag_name    VARCHAR2(350),
                                               tag_indexed VARCHAR2(5),
                                               tag_type    VARCHAR2(30);

Attributes

Table 187-4 EXF$XPATH_TAG Attributes

Attribute Description

Attribute	Description
`tag_name`	Name of the XML element or attribute. The name for an XML attribute is formatted as: `<ElementName>@<AttributeName>`. Optionally, the element name can be prefixed with its namespace URL as in <Namespace URL>:<ElementName>@<AttributeName>.
`tag_indexed`	`TRUE` if XML tag is indexed; otherwise `FALSE`. Default: `TRUE` if the tag is a positional filter. `FALSE` if the tag is a value filter.
`tag_type`	Datatype for the value in the case of value filter. `NULL` for positional filters.

tag_name

Name of the XML element or attribute. The name for an XML attribute is formatted as: <ElementName>@<AttributeName>. Optionally, the element name can be prefixed with its namespace URL as in <Namespace URL>:<ElementName>@<AttributeName>.

tag_indexed

TRUE if XML tag is indexed; otherwise FALSE.

Default:

TRUE if the tag is a positional filter.

FALSE if the tag is a value filter.

tag_type

Datatype for the value in the case of value filter. NULL for positional filters.

Usage Notes

EXF$XPATH_TAG type is used to configure an XML element or an attribute as a positional or a value filter for an Expression Filter index (see "Index Tuning for XPath Predicates" in Oracle Database Application Developer's Guide - Rules Manager and Expression Filter). An instance of the EXF$XPATH_TAG type with NULL value for tag_type configures the XML tag as a positional filter. In the current release, the only other possible values for the tag_type attribute are strings (CHAR or VARCHAR) and such tags are configured as value filters. By default, all positional filters are indexed and the value filters are not indexed. This behavior can be overridden by setting a TRUE or FALSE value for the tag_indexed attribute accordingly.

Examples

An XML element can be configured as a positional filter and be indexed using the following instance of the EXF$XPATH_TAG type.

exf$xpath_tag(tag_name    => 'stereo',       --- XML element
              tag_indexed => 'TRUE',         --- indexed predicate group
              tag_type    => null)           --- positional filter

An XML attribute can be configured as a value filter and be indexed using the following type instance.

exf$xpath_tag(tag_name    => 'stereo@make',  --- XML attribute
              tag_indexed => 'TRUE',         --- indexed predicate group
              tag_type    => 'VARCHAR(15)')  --- value filter

The following commands configure the two filters shown previously using the namespace URL for the corresponding elements.

exf$xpath_tag(tag_name => 'http://www.auto.com/car.xsd:stereo', 
              tag_indexed => 'TRUE', --- indexed predicate group
              tag_type => null)      --- positional filter

exf$xpath_tag(tag_name => 'http://www.auto.com/car.xsd:stereo@make'
              tag_indexed => 'TRUE',     --- indexed predicate group
              tag_type => 'VARCHAR(15)') --- value filter

EXF$XPATH_TAGS

The EXF$XPATH_TAGS type is used to specify a list of XML tags while configuring the Expression Filter index parameters.

Syntax

CREATE or REPLACE TYPE EXF$XPATH_TAGS as VARRAY(490) of EXF$XPATH_TAG;

Attributes

None.

Usage Notes

EXF$XPATH_TAGS type is used to specify a list of XML tags while configuring the Expression Filter index parameters. (See "DEFAULT_INDEX_PARAMETERS Procedure".)

Examples

A list of XML tags configured as positional and value filters can be represented as follows:

exf$xpath_tags(
           exf$xpath_tag(tag_name    => 'stereo@make',  --- XML attribute
                         tag_indexed => 'TRUE',
                         tag_type    => 'VARCHAR(15)'), --- value filter
           exf$xpath_tag(tag_name    => 'stereo',       --- XML element
                         tag_indexed => 'FALSE',
                         tag_type    => null),          --- positional filter
           exf$xpath_tag(tag_name    => 'memory',       --- XML element
                         tag_indexed => 'TRUE',
                         tag_type    => 'VARCHAR(10)')  --- value filter
          )