6 Indexing XMLType Data

XMLIndex Addresses the Fine-Grained Structure of XML Data

You can create indexes on one or more table columns, or on a functional expression. XML data, however, has its own, fine-grained structure, which is not necessarily reflected in the structure of the database tables used to store it. For this reason, effectively indexing XML data can be a bit different from indexing most database data.

For structured XML storage, XML objects such as elements and attributes correspond to object-relational columns and tables, so creating B-tree indexes on those columns and tables provides an excellent way to effectively index the corresponding XML objects. Here, the storage model directly reflects the fine-grained structure of the XML data, so there is no special problem for indexing structured XML data. See "Indexing XMLType Data Stored Object-Relationally".

For unstructured, hybrid, and binary XML storage models, indexing a database column using the standard sorts of index (B-tree, bitmap) is generally not helpful for accessing particular parts of an XML document. If an XMLType column that contains an XML document is stored as a CLOB instance, then the details within that document are inaccessible to the column index — the entire document acts as a single unit as far as the column index is concerned. In hybrid storage, part of an XML document is broken up and stored object-relationally (structured storage), but one or more XML fragments are stored as CLOB instances (unstructured storage). A typical use case here is mapping an XML-schema complexType or a complex element to CLOB storage, because the entire fragment is generally accessed as a unit. For standard indexes, it acts as a unit for indexing as well.

XMLIndex provides a general, XML-specific index that indexes the internal structure of XML data. One of its main purposes is to overcome the indexing limitation presented by unstructured, hybrid, and binary XML storage.

• An XMLIndex index with an unstructured component indexes the XML tags of your document and identifies document fragments based on XPath expressions that target them. It can also index scalar node values, to provide quick lookup based on individual values or ranges of values. It also records document hierarchy information for each node it indexes: relations parent–child, ancestor–descendant, and sibling. This index component is particularly useful for queries that extract XML fragments from documents that have little or variable structure.

• An XMLIndex index with a structured component indexes highly structured and predictable parts of XML data that is nevertheless for the most part unstructured. This index component is particularly useful for queries that project and use such islands of structured content.

Oracle Text Indexes

Besides accessing XML nodes such as elements and attributes, it is sometimes important to provide fast access to particular passages of text within XML text nodes. This is the purpose of Oracle Text indexes: they index full-text strings. An Oracle Text CONTEXT index enables Oracle SQL function contains for full-text search over XML. With structured storage, XPath rewrite can often rewrite queries that use XPath function ora:contains to queries that use SQL function contains, so in those cases too an Oracle Text index can be employed.

Full-text indexing is particularly useful for document-centric applications, which often contain a mix of XML elements and text-node content. Full-text searching can often be made more powerful, more focused, by combining it with structural XML searching, that is, by restricting it to certain parts of an XML document, which are identified by using XPath expressions.

Optimization Chooses the Right Indexes to Use

Which indexes are used when more than one might apply in a given case? Cost-based optimization determines the index or indexes to use, so that performance is maximized. Oracle Text indexes apply only to text, which, for XML data, means text nodes. Whenever text nodes are targeted and a corresponding Oracle Text index is defined, it is used. If other indexes are also appropriate in a particular context, then they can be used as well. However, just because an index is defined and it might appear applicable in a given situation does not mean that it will be used — it will not be used if the cost-based optimizer deems that its use is not cost-effective.

Deprecated Indexes for XML Data

In releases prior to Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1), CTXXPath indexes were sometimes appropriate for use with XMLType data. In releases prior to Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2), function-based indexes were sometimes appropriate for use with XMLType data. These indexing methods are no longer recommended for use with XMLType data.

Indexing Non-Repeating text() Nodes or Attribute Values

Table purchaseorder in sample database schema OE is stored object-relationally. Each purchase-order document has a single Reference element; this element is a singleton. You can thus use a shortcut to create an index on the underlying object-relational data.

Example 6-1 shows a CREATE INDEX statement that ostensibly tries to create a function-based index using XMLCast applied to XMLQuery, targeting the text content of element Reference. (The content of this element is only text, so targeting the element is the same as targeting its text node using node test text().)

Example 6-2 ostensibly tries to create a function-based index using (deprecated) Oracle SQL function extractValue, targeting the same data.

CREATE INDEX po_reference_ix ON purchaseorder
  (XMLCast(XMLQuery ('$p/PurchaseOrder/Reference' PASSING po.OBJECT_VALUE AS "p"
                                                  RETURNING CONTENT)
              AS VARCHAR2(128)));

CREATE INDEX po_reference_ix ON purchaseorder
  (extractValue(OBJECT_VALUE, '/PurchaseOrder/Reference'));

In reality, in both Example 6-1 and Example 6-2 no function-based index is created on the targeted XMLType data. Instead, Oracle XML DB rewrites the CREATE INDEX statements to create indexes on the underlying scalar data.

In some cases when you use either of these shortcuts, the CREATE INDEX statement is not able to create an index on the underlying scalar data as described, and it instead actually does create a function-based index on the referenced XMLType data. (This is so, even if the value of the index might be a scalar.)

If this happens, drop the index, and create instead an XMLIndex index with a structured component that targets the same XPath. As a general rule, Oracle recommends against using a function-based index on XMLType data.

This is an instance of a general rule for XMLType data, regardless of the storage method used: Use an XMLIndex with a structured component instead of a function-based index. This rule applies starting with Oracle Database 11g Release 2 (11.2). Respecting this rule obviates the overhead associated with maintenance operations on function-based indexes, and it can increase the number of situations in which the optimizer can correctly select the index.

Indexing Repeating (Collection) Elements

In structured storage, a collection is stored as an ordered collection table (OCT) of an XMLType instance, which means that you can directly access its members. Because the structured storage model directly reflects the fine-grained structure of the XML data, you can create indexes that target individual collection members.

You must create such indexes manually. The special feature of automatically creating B-tree indexes when you ostensibly create a function-based index for (deprecated) Oracle SQL function extractValue does not apply to collections (the XPath expression passed to extractValue must target a singleton).

To create B-tree indexes for a collection, you must understand the structure of the SQL object that is used to manage the collection. Given this information, you can use conventional object-relational SQL code to created the indexes directly on the appropriate SQL-object attributes. Refer to "Guideline: Create indexes on ordered collection tables" for an example of how to do this.

Advantages of XMLIndex

XMLIndex is a domain index; it is designed specifically for the domain of XML data. It is a logical index. An XMLIndex index can be used for SQL/XML functions XMLQuery, XMLTable, XMLExists, and XMLCast.

XMLIndex presents the following advantages over other indexing methods:

• An XMLIndex index is effective in any part of a query;  it is not limited to use in a WHERE clause. This is not the case for any of the other kinds of indexes you might use with XML data.

• An XMLIndex index with an unstructured component can speed access to both SELECT list data and FROM list data, making it useful for XML fragment extraction, in particular. Function-based indexes and CTXXPath indexes, both of which are deprecated, cannot be used to extract document fragments.

• You can use an XMLIndex index with either XML schema-based or non-schema-based data. You can use it with unstructured storage, hybrid storage, and binary XML storage. B-tree indexing is appropriate only for XML schema-based data that is stored object-relationally (structured storage); it is ineffective for XML schema-based data stored in a CLOB instance.

• You can use an XMLIndex index for searches with XPath expressions that target collections, that is, nodes that occur multiple times within a document. This is not the case for function-based indexes.

• You need no prior knowledge of the XPath expressions that might be used in queries. The unstructured component of an XMLIndex index can be completely general. This is not the case for function-based indexes.

• If you have prior knowledge of the XPath expressions to be used in queries, then you can improve performance either by using a structured XMLIndex component that targets fixed, structured islands of data that are queried often.

• XMLIndex indexing — both index creation and index maintenance — can be carried out in parallel, using multiple database processes. This is not the case for function-based and CTXXPATH indexes, which are deprecated.

Structured and Unstructured XMLIndex Components

XMLIndex is used to index XML data that is semi-structured^Foot 1 , that is, data that generally has little or no fixed structure. It applies to data that is stored using binary XML or CLOB-based storage. This includes XML data stored in CLOB instances that are embedded in object-relational storage (hybrid storage).

Semi-structured XML data can sometimes nevertheless contain islands of predictable, structured data. An XMLIndex index can therefore have two components: a structured component, used to index such islands, and an unstructured component, used to index data that has little or variable structure.

A structured component can help with queries that project and use islands of structured content. An unstructured component can help with queries that extract XML fragments. Either component can be omitted from a given XMLIndex index.

Unlike a structured component, an unstructured component is general and relatively untargeted. Though you can restrict an unstructured component to apply only to certain XPath subsets, its path table indexes node content that can be of different scalar types, which can require you to create multiple secondary indexes on the VALUE column to deal with the different data types — see "Secondary Indexes on Column VALUE". Using an unstructured component alone can also lead to inefficiencies involving multiple probes and self-joins of its path table, for queries that project structured islands.

On the other hand, a structured component is not suited for queries that involve little structure or queries that extract XML fragments. Use a structured component to index structured islands of data; use an unstructured component to index data that has little structure.

Figure 6-1 is the same as Figure 1-5 in Chapter 1. The last row indicates the applicability of XMLIndex for different XML data use cases. It shows that XMLIndex is appropriate for semi-structured XML data, however it is stored (last three columns). And an XMLIndex index with a structured component is useful for document-centric data that contains structured islands (fourth column).

Figure 6-1 XML Use Cases and XML Indexing

Description of "Figure 6-1 XML Use Cases and XML Indexing"

XMLIndex Structured Component

You create and use the structured component of an XMLIndex index for queries that project fixed, structured islands of XML content, even if the surrounding data is relatively unstructured.

A structured XMLIndex component organizes such islands in a relational format. In this it is similar to SQL/XML function XMLTable, and the syntax you use to define the structured component reflects this similarity. The relational tables used to store the indexing data are data-type aware, and each column can be of a different scalar data type.

You can thus think of the act of creating the structured component of an XMLIndex index as decomposing a structured portion of your XML data into relational format. This differs from the object-relational storage model of XMLType in these ways:

• A structured index component explicitly decomposes particular portions of your data, which you specify — portions that you commonly query. Object-relational XMLType storage involves automatic decomposition of an entire XMLType table or column.

• The structured component of an XMLIndex index applies to both XML schema-based and non-schema-based data. Object-relational XMLType storage applies only to data that is based on an XML schema.

• The decomposed data for a structured XMLIndex component is stored in addition to the XMLType data, as an index, rather than being the storage model for the XMLType data itself.

• For a structured XMLIndex component, the same data can be projected multiple times, as columns of different data type.

The index content tables used for the structured component of an XMLIndex index are part of the index, but because they are normal relational tables you can, in turn, index them using any standard relational indexes, including indexes that satisfy primary-key and foreign-key constraints. You can also index them using domain indexes, such as an Oracle Text CONTEXT index.

Another way to look at the structured component of an XMLIndex index sees that it acts as a generalized function-based index. A function-based index is similar to a structured XMLIndex component that has only one relational column.

If you find that for a particular application you are creating multiple function-based indexes, then consider using a structured XMLIndex index instead. Create also B-tree indexes on the columns of the structured index component.

SELECT count(*) FROM purchaseorder
  WHERE XMLCast(XMLQuery('$p/PurchaseOrder/LineItem/@ItemNumber'
                         PASSING OBJECT_VALUE AS "p" RETURNING CONTENT)
                AS INTEGER)
        = 25;

SELECT count(*) FROM purchaseorder
  WHERE XMLExists('$p/PurchaseOrder/LineItem[xs:decimal(@ItemNumber) = 25]'
                  PASSING OBJECT_VALUE AS "p");

XMLIndex Unstructured Component

Unlike a B-tree index, which you define for a specific database column that represents an individual XML element or attribute, or the XMLIndex structured component, which applies to specific, structured document parts, the unstructured component of an XMLIndex index is, by default, very general. Unless you specify a more narrow focus by detailing specific XPath expressions to use or not to use in indexing, an unstructured XMLIndex component applies to all possible XPath expressions for your XML data.

The unstructured component of an XMLIndex index has three logical parts:

• A path index – This indexes the XML tags of a document and identifies its various document fragments.

• An order index – This indexes the hierarchical positions of the nodes in an XML document. It keeps track of parent–child, ancestor–descendant, and sibling relations.

• A value index – This indexes the values of an XML document. It provides lookup by either value equality or value range. A value index is used for values in query predicates (WHERE clause).

The unstructured component of an XMLIndex index uses a path table and a set of (local) secondary indexes on the path table, which implement the logical parts described above. Two secondary indexes are created automatically:

• A pikey index, which implements the logical indexes for both path and order.

• A real value index, which implements the logical value index.

You can modify these two indexes or create additional secondary indexes. The path table and its secondary indexes are all owned by the owner of the base table upon which the XMLIndex index is created.

The pikey index handles paths and order relationships together, which gives the best performance in most cases. If you find in some particular case that the value index is not picked up when think it should be, you can replace the pikey index with separate indexes for the paths and order relationships. Such (optional) indexes are called path id and order key indexes, respectively. For best results, contact Oracle Support if you find that the pikey index is not sufficient for your needs in some case.

The path table contains one row for each indexed node in the XML document. For each indexed node, the path table stores:

• The corresponding rowid of the table that stores the document.

• A locator, which provides fast access to the corresponding document fragment. For binary XML storage of XML schema-based data, it also stores data-type information.

• An order key, to record the hierarchical position of the node in the document. You can think of this as a Dewey decimal key like that used in library cataloging and Internet protocol SNMP. In such a system, the key 3.21.5 represents the node position of the fifth child of the twenty-first child of the third child of the document root node.

• An identifier that represents an XPath path to the node.

• The effective text value of the node.

Table 6-6 shows the main information^Foot 2  that is in the path table.

The pikey index uses path table columns PATHID, RID, and ORDER_KEY to represent the path and order indexes. An optional path id index uses columns PATHID and RID to represent the path index. A value index is an index on the VALUE column.

Example 6-5 explores the contents of the path table for two purchase-order documents.

<PurchaseOrder>
 <Reference>SBELL-2002100912333601PDT</Reference>
 <Actions>
  <Action>
   <User>SVOLLMAN</User>
  </Action>
 </Actions>
 . . .
</PurchaseOrder>

<PurchaseOrder>
 <Reference>ABEL-20021127121040897PST</Reference>
 <Actions>
  <Action>
   <User>ZLOTKEY</User>
  </Action>
  <Action>
   <User>KING</User>
  </Action>
 </Actions>
 . . .
</PurchaseOrder>

/PurchaseOrder[Reference/text() = "SBELL-2002100912333601PDT"]

substr(VALUE, 1 800) = substr(:1, 1, 800) AND VALUE = :1;

Creating, Dropping, Altering, and Examining an XMLIndex Index

You create an XMLIndex index by declaring the index type to be XDB.XMLIndex, as illustrated in Example 6-6.

CREATE INDEX po_xmlindex_ix ON po_clob (OBJECT_VALUE) INDEXTYPE IS XDB.XMLIndex;

This creates an XMLIndex index named po_xmlindex_ix on XMLType table po_clob. The index has only an unstructured component, no structured component.

You specify inclusion of a structured component in an XMLIndex index by including a structured_clause in the PARAMETERS clause. You specify inclusion of an unstructured component by including a path_table_clause in the PARAMETERS clause. You can do this when you create the XMLIndex index or when you modify it. If, as in Example 6-6, you specify neither a structured_clause nor a path_table_clause, then only an unstructured component is included.

If an XMLIndex index has both an unstructured and a structured component, then you can drop either of these components using ALTER INDEX.

You can obtain the name of an XMLIndex index on a particular XMLType table (or column), as shown in Example 6-7. You can also select INDEX_NAME from DBA_INDEXES or ALL_INDEXES, as appropriate.

SELECT INDEX_NAME FROM USER_INDEXES
  WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'PO_CLOB' AND ITYP_NAME = 'XMLINDEX';

INDEX_NAME
---------------
PO_XMLINDEX_IX
 
1 row selected.

You rename or drop an XMLIndex index just as you would any other index, as illustrated in Example 6-8. This renaming changes the name of the XMLIndex index only. It does not change the name of the path table — you can rename the path table separately.

ALTER INDEX po_xmlindex_ix RENAME TO new_name_ix;

DROP INDEX new_name_ix;

Similarly, you can change other index properties using other ALTER INDEX options, such as REBUILD. XMLIndex is no different from other index types in this respect.

The RENAME clause of an ALTER INDEX statement for XMLIndex applies only to the XMLIndex index itself. To rename the path table and secondary indexes, you must determine the names of these objects and use appropriate ALTER TABLE or ALTER INDEX statements on them directly. Similarly, to retrieve the physical properties of the secondary indexes or alter them in any other way, you must obtain their names, as in Example 6-13.

Example 6-6 shows how to create an XMLIndex index on unstructured storage.

Using XMLIndex with an Unstructured Component

This section covers operations you can perform on an XMLIndex index that has an unstructured component (whether or not it also has a structured component) — see "XMLIndex Unstructured Component".

To include an unstructured component in an XMLIndex index, you use a path_table_clause in the PARAMETERS clause when you create or modify the XMLIndex index — see "path_table_clause ::=".

If you do not specify a structured component, then the index will have an unstructured component, even if you do not specify the path table. It is however generally a good idea to specify the path table, so that it has a recognizable, user-oriented name that you can refer to in other XMLIndex operations.

Example 6-9 shows how to name the path table ("my_path_table") when creating an XMLIndex index with an unstructured component.

CREATE INDEX po_xmlindex_ix ON po_clob (OBJECT_VALUE) INDEXTYPE IS XDB.XMLIndex
  PARAMETERS ('PATH TABLE my_path_table');

If you do not name the path table then its name is generated by the system, using the index name you provide to CREATE INDEX as a base. Example 6-10 shows this for the XMLIndex index created in Example 6-6.

SELECT PATH_TABLE_NAME FROM USER_XML_INDEXES
  WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'PO_CLOB' AND INDEX_NAME = 'PO_XMLINDEX_IX';
 
PATH_TABLE_NAME
------------------------------
SYS67567_PO_XMLINDE_PATH_TABLE
 
1 row selected.

By default, the storage options of a path table and its secondary indexes are derived from the storage properties of the base table on which the XMLIndex index is created. You can specify different storage options by using a PARAMETERS clause when you create the index, as shown in Example 6-11. The PARAMETERS clause of CREATE INDEX (and ALTER INDEX) must be between single quotation marks (').

CREATE INDEX po_xmlindex_ix ON po_clob (OBJECT_VALUE) INDEXTYPE IS XDB.XMLIndex
  PARAMETERS
    ('PATH TABLE po_path_table
      (PCTFREE 5 PCTUSED 90 INITRANS 5
       STORAGE (INITIAL 1k NEXT 2k MINEXTENTS 3 BUFFER_POOL KEEP)
       NOLOGGING ENABLE ROW MOVEMENT PARALLEL 3)
      PIKEY INDEX po_pikey_ix (LOGGING PCTFREE 1 INITRANS 3)
      VALUE INDEX po_value_ix (LOGGING PCTFREE 1 INITRANS 3)');

Because XMLIndex is a logical domain index, not a physical index, all physical attributes are either zero (0) or NULL.

If an XMLIndex index has both an unstructured and a structured component, then you can use ALTER INDEX to drop the unstructured component. To do this, you drop the path table. Example 6-12 illustrates this. (This assumes that you also have a structured component — Example 6-20 results in an index with both structured and unstructured components.)

ALTER INDEX po_xmlindex_ix PARAMETERS('DROP PATH TABLE');

Note that, in addition to specifying storage options for the path table, Example 6-11 names the secondary indexes on the path table.

Like the name of the path table, the names of the secondary indexes on the path-table columns are generated automatically using the index name as a base, unless you specify them in the PARAMETERS clause. Example 6-13 illustrates this, and shows how you can determine these names using public view USER_IND_COLUMNS. It also shows that the pikey index uses three columns.

SELECT INDEX_NAME, COLUMN_NAME, COLUMN_POSITION FROM USER_IND_COLUMNS
  WHERE TABLE_NAME IN (SELECT PATH_TABLE_NAME FROM USER_XML_INDEXES
                         WHERE INDEX_NAME = 'PO_XMLINDEX_IX')
  ORDER BY INDEX_NAME, COLUMN_NAME;
 
INDEX_NAME                     COLUMN_NAME  COLUMN_POSITION
------------------------------ ------------ ---------------
SYS67563_PO_XMLINDE_PIKEY_IX   ORDER_KEY                  3
SYS67563_PO_XMLINDE_PIKEY_IX   PATHID                     2
SYS67563_PO_XMLINDE_PIKEY_IX   RID                        1
SYS67563_PO_XMLINDE_VALUE_IX   SYS_NC00006$               1
 
4 rows selected.

CREATE INDEX fn_based_ix ON po_path_table (substr(VALUE, 1, 100));

CREATE INDEX direct_num_ix ON po_path_table (to_binary_double(VALUE));
CREATE INDEX direct_num_ix ON po_path_table (to_binary_double(VALUE))
                                             *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01722: invalid number

CALL DBMS_XMLINDEX.createNumberIndex('OE', 'PO_XMLINDEX_IX', 'API_NUM_IX');

CALL DBMS_XMLINDEX.createDateIndex('OE', 'PO_XMLINDEX_IX', 'API_DATE_IX', 
                                   'dateTime');

CREATE INDEX po_otext_ix ON po_path_table (VALUE)
  INDEXTYPE IS CTXSYS.CONTEXT PARAMETERS('TRANSACTIONAL');

SELECT c.INDEX_NAME, c.COLUMN_NAME, c.COLUMN_POSITION, e.COLUMN_EXPRESSION
  FROM USER_IND_COLUMNS c LEFT OUTER JOIN USER_IND_EXPRESSIONS e
    ON (c.INDEX_NAME = e.INDEX_NAME)
  WHERE c.TABLE_NAME IN (SELECT PATH_TABLE_NAME FROM USER_XML_INDEXES
                           WHERE INDEX_NAME = 'PO_XMLINDEX_IX')
  ORDER BY c.INDEX_NAME, c.COLUMN_NAME;
 
INDEX_NAME           COLUMN_NAME  COLUMN_POSITION COLUMN_EXPRESSION
-------------------- ------------ --------------- ----------------------
API_DATE_IX          SYS_NC00009$               1 SYS_EXTRACT_UTC(SYS_XMLCONV("V
                                                  ALUE",3,8,0,0,181))
API_NUM_IX           SYS_NC00008$               1 TO_BINARY_DOUBLE("VALUE")
FN_BASED_IX          SYS_NC00007$               1 SUBSTR("VALUE",1,100)
PO_OTEXT_IX          VALUE                      1
PO_PIKEY_IX          ORDER_KEY                  3
PO_PIKEY_IX          PATHID                     2
PO_PIKEY_IX          RID                        1
PO_VALUE_IX          SYS_NC00006$               1 SUBSTRB("VALUE",1,1599)
 
8 rows selected.

Using XMLIndex with a Structured Component

To include a structured component in an XMLIndex index, you use a structured_clause in the PARAMETERS clause when you create or modify the XMLIndex index — see "structured_clause ::=".

A structured_clause specifies the structured islands that you want to index. You use the keyword GROUP to specify each structured island: an island thus corresponds syntactically to a structure group. If you specify no group explicitly, then the predefined group DEFAULT_GROUP is used. For ALTER INDEX, you precede the GROUP keyword with the modification operation keyword: ADD_GROUP specifies a new group (island); DROP_GROUP deletes a group.

Why have multiple groups within a single index, instead of simply using multiple XMLIndex indexes? The reason is that XMLIndex is a domain index, and you can create only one domain index of a given type on a given database column.

The syntax for defining a structure group, that is, indexing a structured island, is similar to the syntax for invoking SQL/XML function XMLTable: you use keywords XMLTable and COLUMNS to define relational columns, and you use multilevel chaining of XMLTable to handle collections.

Example 6-20 shows the creation of an XMLIndex index with only an unstructured component. An unstructured component is created because the PARAMETERS clause explicitly names the path table.

Example 6-20 then uses ALTER INDEX to add a structured component (group) named po_item. This structure group includes two relational tables, each specified with keyword XMLTable.

CREATE INDEX po_xmlindex_ix ON po_clob (OBJECT_VALUE)
  INDEXTYPE IS XDB.XMLIndex PARAMETERS ('PATH TABLE path_tab');

BEGIN
  DBMS_XMLINDEX.registerParameter(
    'myparam',
    'ADD_GROUP GROUP po_item
       XMLTable po_idx_tab ''/PurchaseOrder''
         COLUMNS reference   VARCHAR2(30)  PATH ''Reference'',
                 requestor   VARCHAR2(30)  PATH ''Requestor'',
                 username    VARCHAR2(30)  PATH ''User'',
                 lineitem    XMLType       PATH ''LineItems/LineItem'' VIRTUAL
       XMLTable po_index_lineitem ''/LineItem'' PASSING lineitem
         COLUMNS itemno      BINARY_DOUBLE PATH ''@ItemNumber'',
                 description VARCHAR2(256) PATH ''Description'',
                 partno      VARCHAR2(14)  PATH ''Part/@Id'',
                 quantity    BINARY_DOUBLE PATH ''Part/@Quantity'',
                 unitprice   BINARY_DOUBLE PATH ''Part/@UnitPrice''');
END;
/

ALTER INDEX po_xmlindex_ix PARAMETERS('PARAM myparam');

The top-level table, po_idx_tab, has columns reference, requestor, username, and lineitem. Column lineitem is of type XMLType. It represents a collection, so it is passed to the second XMLTable construct to form the second-level relational table, po_index_lineitem, which has columns itemno, description, partno, quantity, and unitprice.

The keyword VIRTUAL is required for an XMLType column. It specifies that the XMLType column itself is not materialized: its data is stored in the XMLIndex index only in the form of the relational columns specified by its corresponding XMLTable table.

You cannot create more than one XMLType column in a given XMLTable clause. To achieve that effect, you must instead define an additional group.

Example 6-20 also illustrates the use of a registered parameter string in the PARAMETERS clause. It uses PL/SQL procedure DBMS_XMLINDEX.registerParameter to register the parameters string named myparam. Then it uses ALTER INDEX to update the index parameters to include those in the string myparam.

If an XMLIndex index has both an unstructured and a structured component, then you can use ALTER INDEX to drop the structured component. You do this by dropping all of the structure groups that compose the structured component. Example 6-21 shows how to drop the structured component that was added in Example 6-20, by dropping its only structure group, po_item.

ALTER INDEX po_xmlindex_ix PARAMETERS('DROP_GROUP GROUP po_item');

As indicated in section "XMLIndex Structured Component", because the tables used for the structured component of an XMLIndex index are normal relational tables, you can index them using any standard relational indexes.

Example 6-22 and Example 6-23 illustrate this: Example 6-22 creates a B-tree index on the reference column of the index content table (structured fragment) for the XMLIndex index of Example 6-20. Example 6-23 creates an Oracle Text CONTEXT index on the description column and then uses a full-text query on the content.

CREATE INDEX idx_tab_ref_ix ON po_idx_tab (reference);

CREATE INDEX idx_tab_desc_ix ON po_index_lineitem (description)
  INDEXTYPE IS CTXSYS.CONTEXT PARAMETERS ('transactional');

SELECT XMLQuery('/PurchaseOrder/LineItems/LineItem'
                PASSING OBJECT_VALUE RETURNING CONTENT)
  FROM po_clob
    WHERE XMLExists('/PurchaseOrder/LineItems/LineItem
                     [ora:contains(Description, "Picnic") > 0]'
                    PASSING OBJECT_VALUE)
      AND XMLExists('/PurchaseOrder[User="SBELL"]' PASSING OBJECT_VALUE);

Example 6-24 shows the creation of an XMLIndex index that has only a structured component (no path table clause) and that uses the XMLNAMESPACES clause to specify namespaces. It specifies that the index data be compressed and use tablespace SYSAUX. The example assumes a binary XML table po_binxml with non XML schema-based data.

CREATE INDEX po_struct ON po_binxml (OBJECT_VALUE) INDEXTYPE IS XDB.XMLIndex
  PARAMETERS ('XMLTable po_ptab
                 (TABLESPACE "SYSAUX" COMPRESS FOR OLTP)
                 XMLNAMESPACES (DEFAULT ''http://www.example.com/po''),
                 ''/purchaseOrder''
                 COLUMNS orderdate   DATE          PATH ''@orderDate'',
                         id          BINARY_DOUBLE PATH ''@id'',
                         items       XMLType       PATH ''items/item'' VIRTUAL
               XMLTable li_tab
                 (TABLESPACE "SYSAUX" COMPRESS FOR OLTP)
                 XMLNAMESPACES (DEFAULT ''http://www.example.com/po''),
                 ''/item'' PASSING items
                 COLUMNS partnum     VARCHAR2(15)  PATH ''@partNum'',
                         description CLOB          PATH ''productName'',
                         usprice     BINARY_DOUBLE PATH ''USPrice'',
                         shipdat     DATE          PATH ''shipDate''');

How to Tell Whether XMLIndex is Used

It is at query compile time that Oracle Database determines whether or not a given XMLIndex index can be used, that is, whether the query can be rewritten into a query against the index.

For an unstructured XMLIndex component, if it cannot be determined at compile time that an XPath expression in the query is a subset of the paths you specified to be used for XMLIndex indexing, then the unstructured component of the  index  is not used.

For example, if the path /PurchaseOrder/LineItems//* is included for indexing, then a query with /PurchaseOrder/LineItems/LineItem/Description can use the index, but a query with //Description cannot. The latter also matches potential Description elements that are not children of /PurchaseOrder/LineItems, and it is not possible at compile time to know if such additional Description elements are present in the data.

To know whether a particular XMLIndex index has been used in resolving a query, you can examine an execution plan for the query.

• If the unstructured component of the index is used, then its path table, order key, or path id is referenced in the execution plan. The execution plan does not directly indicate that a domain index was used; it does not refer to the XMLIndex index by name. See Example 6-25 and Example 6-27.

• If the structured component of the index is used, then one or more of its index content tables is called out in the execution plan. See Example 6-28 and Example 6-29.

Example 6-25 shows that the XMLIndex index created in Example 6-9 is used in a particular query. The reference to MY_PATH_TABLE in the execution plan here indicates that the XMLIndex index (created in Example 6-9) is used in this query. Similarly, reference to columns LOCATOR, ORDER_KEY, and PATHID indicates the same thing.

SET AUTOTRACE ON EXPLAIN

SELECT XMLQuery('/PurchaseOrder/Requestor' PASSING OBJECT_VALUE RETURNING CONTENT) FROM po_clob
  WHERE XMLExists('/PurchaseOrder[Reference="SBELL-2002100912333601PDT"]' PASSING OBJECT_VALUE);
 
XMLQUERY('/PURCHASEORDER/REQUESTOR'PASSINGOBJECT_VALUERETURNINGCONTENT)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
<Requestor>Sarah J. Bell</Requestor>
 
1 row selected.
 
 
Execution Plan
. . .
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation                       | Name                         | Rows  | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT                |                              |     1 |    24 |    28   (4)| 00:00:01 |
|   1 |  SORT GROUP BY                  |                              |     1 |  3524 |            |          |
|*  2 |   TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID   | MY_PATH_TABLE                |     2 |  7048 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  3 |    INDEX RANGE SCAN             | SYS67616_PO_XMLINDE_PIKEY_IX |     1 |       |     2   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|   4 |  NESTED LOOPS                   |                              |     1 |    24 |    28   (4)| 00:00:01 |
|   5 |   VIEW                          | VW_SQ_1                      |     1 |    12 |    26   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|   6 |    HASH UNIQUE                  |                              |     1 |  5046 |            |          |
|   7 |     NESTED LOOPS                |                              |     1 |  5046 |    26   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  8 |      TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| MY_PATH_TABLE                |     1 |  3524 |    24   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  9 |       INDEX RANGE SCAN          | SYS67616_PO_XMLINDE_VALUE_IX |    73 |       |     1   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|* 10 |      TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| MY_PATH_TABLE                |     1 |  1522 |     2   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|* 11 |       INDEX RANGE SCAN          | SYS67616_PO_XMLINDE_PIKEY_IX |     1 |       |     1   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|  12 |   TABLE ACCESS BY USER ROWID    | PO_CLOB                      |     1 |    12 |     1   (0)| 00:00:01 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
 
   2 - filter(SYS_XMLI_LOC_ISNODE("SYS_P0"."LOCATOR")=1)
   3 - access("SYS_P0"."RID"=:B1 AND "SYS_P0"."PATHID"=HEXTORAW('76E2') )
   8 - filter("SYS_P4"."VALUE"='SBELL-2002100912333601PDT' AND "SYS_P4"."PATHID"=HEXTORAW('4F8C')  AND
              SYS_XMLI_LOC_ISNODE("SYS_P4"."LOCATOR")=1)
   9 - access(SUBSTRB("VALUE",1,1599)='SBELL-2002100912333601PDT')
  10 - filter(SYS_XMLI_LOC_ISNODE("SYS_P2"."LOCATOR")=1)
  11 - access("SYS_P4"."RID"="SYS_P2"."RID" AND "SYS_P2"."PATHID"=HEXTORAW('4E36')  AND
              "SYS_P2"."ORDER_KEY"<"SYS_P4"."ORDER_KEY")
       filter("SYS_P4"."ORDER_KEY"<SYS_ORDERKEY_MAXCHILD("SYS_P2"."ORDER_KEY") AND
              SYS_ORDERKEY_DEPTH("SYS_P2"."ORDER_KEY")+1=SYS_ORDERKEY_DEPTH("SYS_P4"."ORDER_KEY"))
. . .

Given the name of a path table from an execution plan such as this, you can obtain the name of its XMLIndex index as shown in Example 6-26. (This is more or less opposite to the query in Example 6-10.)

SELECT INDEX_NAME FROM USER_XML_INDEXES WHERE PATH_TABLE_NAME = 'MY_PATH_TABLE';
 
INDEX_NAME
------------------------------
PO_XMLINDEX_IX
 
1 row selected.

XMLIndex can be used for XPath expressions in the SELECT list, the FROM list, and the WHERE clause of a query, and it is useful for SQL/XML functions XMLQuery, XMLTable, XMLExists, and XMLCast. Unlike function-based indexes (and CTXXPath indexes, which are deprecated), XMLIndex indexes can be used when you extract data from an XML fragment in a document.

Example 6-27 illustrates this.

SET AUTOTRACE ON EXPLAIN
 
SELECT li.description, li.itemno
  FROM po_clob, XMLTable('/PurchaseOrder/LineItems/LineItem'
                         PASSING OBJECT_VALUE
                         COLUMNS "DESCRIPTION" VARCHAR(40) PATH 'Description',
                                 "ITEMNO"      INTEGER     PATH '@ItemNumber') li
  WHERE XMLExists('/PurchaseOrder[Reference="SBELL-2002100912333601PDT"]'
                  PASSING OBJECT_VALUE);
 
DESCRIPTION                                  ITEMNO
---------------------------------------- ----------
A Night to Remember                               1
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being                 2
Sisters                                           3
 
3 rows selected.

Execution Plan

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation                         | Name                         | Rows  | Bytes |Cost (%CPU)| Time    |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT                  |                              |     1 |  1546 |   30   (4)|00:00:01 |
|*  1 |  FILTER                           |                              |       |       |           |          |
|*  2 |   TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID     | MY_PATH_TABLE                |     1 |  3524 |    3   (0)|00:00:01 |
|*  3 |    INDEX RANGE SCAN               | SYS67616_PO_XMLINDE_PIKEY_IX |     1 |       |    2   (0)|00:00:01 |
|*  4 |  FILTER                           |                              |       |       |           |         |
|*  5 |   TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID     | MY_PATH_TABLE                |     1 |  3524 |    3   (0)|00:00:01 |
|*  6 |    INDEX RANGE SCAN               | SYS67616_PO_XMLINDE_PIKEY_IX |     1 |       |    2   (0)|00:00:01 |
|   7 |  NESTED LOOPS                     |                              |       |       |           |         |
|   8 |   NESTED LOOPS                    |                              |     1 |  1546 |   30   (4)|00:00:01 |
|   9 |    NESTED LOOPS                   |                              |     1 |    24 |   28   (4)|00:00:01 |
|  10 |     VIEW                          | VW_SQ_1                      |     1 |    12 |   26   (0)|00:00:01 |
|  11 |      HASH UNIQUE                  |                              |     1 |  5046 |           |         |
|  12 |       NESTED LOOPS                |                              |     1 |  5046 |   26   (0)|00:00:01 |
|* 13 |        TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| MY_PATH_TABLE                |     1 |  3524 |   24   (0)|00:00:01 |
|* 14 |         INDEX RANGE SCAN          | SYS67616_PO_XMLINDE_VALUE_IX |    73 |       |    1   (0)|00:00:01 |
|* 15 |        TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| MY_PATH_TABLE                |     1 |  1522 |    2   (0)|00:00:01 |
|* 16 |         INDEX RANGE SCAN          | SYS67616_PO_XMLINDE_PIKEY_IX |     1 |       |    1   (0)|00:00:01 |
|  17 |     TABLE ACCESS BY USER ROWID    | PO_CLOB                      |     1 |    12 |    1   (0)|00:00:01 |
|* 18 |    INDEX RANGE SCAN               | SYS67616_PO_XMLINDE_PIKEY_IX |     1 |       |    1   (0)|00:00:01 |
|* 19 |   TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID     | MY_PATH_TABLE                |     1 |  1522 |    2   (0)|00:00:01 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
 
   1 - filter(:B1<SYS_ORDERKEY_MAXCHILD(:B2))
   2 - filter(SYS_XMLI_LOC_ISNODE("SYS_P2"."LOCATOR")=1)
   3 - access("SYS_P2"."RID"=:B1 AND "SYS_P2"."PATHID"=HEXTORAW('28EC')  AND "SYS_P2"."ORDER_KEY">:B2 AND
              "SYS_P2"."ORDER_KEY"<SYS_ORDERKEY_MAXCHILD(:B3))
       filter(SYS_ORDERKEY_DEPTH("SYS_P2"."ORDER_KEY")=SYS_ORDERKEY_DEPTH(:B1)+1)
   4 - filter(:B1<SYS_ORDERKEY_MAXCHILD(:B2))
   5 - filter(SYS_XMLI_LOC_ISNODE("SYS_P5"."LOCATOR")=1)
   6 - access("SYS_P5"."RID"=:B1 AND "SYS_P5"."PATHID"=HEXTORAW('60E0')  AND "SYS_P5"."ORDER_KEY">:B2 AND
              "SYS_P5"."ORDER_KEY"<SYS_ORDERKEY_MAXCHILD(:B3))
       filter(SYS_ORDERKEY_DEPTH("SYS_P5"."ORDER_KEY")=SYS_ORDERKEY_DEPTH(:B1)+1)
  13 - filter("SYS_P10"."VALUE"='SBELL-2002100912333601PDT' AND "SYS_P10"."PATHID"=HEXTORAW('4F8C')  AND
              SYS_XMLI_LOC_ISNODE("SYS_P10"."LOCATOR")=1)
  14 - access(SUBSTRB("VALUE",1,1599)='SBELL-2002100912333601PDT')
  15 - filter(SYS_XMLI_LOC_ISNODE("SYS_P8"."LOCATOR")=1)
  16 - access("SYS_P10"."RID"="SYS_P8"."RID" AND "SYS_P8"."PATHID"=HEXTORAW('4E36')  AND
              "SYS_P8"."ORDER_KEY"<"SYS_P10"."ORDER_KEY")
       filter("SYS_P10"."ORDER_KEY"<SYS_ORDERKEY_MAXCHILD("SYS_P8"."ORDER_KEY") AND
              SYS_ORDERKEY_DEPTH("SYS_P8"."ORDER_KEY")+1=SYS_ORDERKEY_DEPTH("SYS_P10"."ORDER_KEY"))
  18 - access("PO_CLOB".ROWID="SYS_ALIAS_4"."RID" AND "SYS_ALIAS_4"."PATHID"=HEXTORAW('3748') )
  19 - filter(SYS_XMLI_LOC_ISNODE("SYS_ALIAS_4"."LOCATOR")=1)
 
Note
-----
   - dynamic sampling used for this statement (level=2)

The execution plan for the query in Example 6-27 shows, by referring to the path table, that XMLIndex is used. It also shows the use of Oracle internal SQL function sys_orderkey_depth — see "Guidelines for Using XMLIndex with an Unstructured Component".

Example 6-28 shows an execution plan that indicates that the XMLIndex index created in Example 6-20 is picked up for a query that uses two WHERE clause predicates. With only the unstructured XMLIndex component, this query would involve a join of the path table to itself, because of the two different paths in the WHERE clause.

EXPLAIN PLAN FOR
  SELECT XMLQuery('/PurchaseOrder/LineItems/LineItem' PASSING OBJECT_VALUE RETURNING CONTENT)
    FROM po_clob
    WHERE XMLExists('/PurchaseOrder/LineItems/LineItem
                     [ora:contains(Description, "Picnic") > 0]' PASSING OBJECT_VALUE)
      AND XMLEXists('/PurchaseOrder[User="SBELL"]' PASSING OBJECT_VALUE);

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation                    | Name                         | Rows  | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT             |                              |     1 |   189 |    22  (14)| 00:00:01 |
|   1 |  SORT GROUP BY               |                              |     1 |  3524 |            |          |
|*  2 |   TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| PATH_TAB                     |     2 |  7048 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  3 |    INDEX RANGE SCAN          | SYS67840_PO_XMLINDE_PIKEY_IX |     1 |       |     2   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  4 |  HASH JOIN SEMI              |                              |     1 |   189 |    22  (14)| 00:00:01 |
|   5 |   NESTED LOOPS               |                              |    13 |   637 |     4  (25)| 00:00:01 |
|   6 |    SORT UNIQUE               |                              |    13 |   351 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  7 |     TABLE ACCESS FULL        | PO_IDX_TAB                   |    13 |   351 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  8 |    INDEX UNIQUE SCAN         | SYS_C006004                  |     1 |    22 |     0   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  9 |   TABLE ACCESS FULL          | PO_INDEX_LINEITEM            |    13 |  1820 |    17   (6)| 00:00:01 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
 
   2 - filter(SYS_XMLI_LOC_ISNODE("SYS_P0"."LOCATOR")=1)
   3 - access("SYS_P0"."RID"=:B1 AND "SYS_P0"."PATHID"=HEXTORAW('3748') )
   4 - access("SYS_ALIAS_1"."SYS_NC_OID$"="SYS_ALIAS_3"."OID")
   7 - filter("SYS_ALIAS_2"."USERNAME"='SBELL')
   8 - access("SYS_ALIAS_1"."SYS_NC_OID$"="SYS_ALIAS_2"."OID")
   9 - filter(SYS_XMLCONTAINS("SYS_ALIAS_3"."DESCRIPTION",'Picnic')>0)
 
Note
-----
   - dynamic sampling used for this statement (level=2)
   - Unoptimized XML construct detected (enable XMLOptimizationCheck for more information)
 
30 rows selected.
 

The presence in Example 6-28 of the path table name, path_tab, indicates that the unstructured index component of the index is used. The presence of the index content table po_idx_tab indicates that the structured index component is used.

Example 6-29 shows an execution plan that indicates that the same XMLIndex index is also picked up for a query that uses multilevel XMLTable chaining. With only the unstructured XMLIndex component, this query too would involve a join of the path table to itself, because of the different paths in the two XMLTable function calls.

EXPLAIN PLAN FOR
  SELECT po.reference, li.*
    FROM po_clob p,
         XMLTable('/PurchaseOrder' PASSING p.OBJECT_VALUE
                  COLUMNS reference   VARCHAR2(30)  PATH 'Reference',
                          lineitem    XMLType       PATH 'LineItems/LineItem') po,
         XMLTable('/LineItem' PASSING po.lineitem
                  COLUMNS itemno      BINARY_DOUBLE PATH '@ItemNumber',
                          description VARCHAR2(256) PATH 'Description',
                          partno      VARCHAR2(14)  PATH 'Part/@Id',
                          quantity    BINARY_DOUBLE PATH 'Part/@Quantity',
                          unitprice   BINARY_DOUBLE PATH 'Part/@UnitPrice') li
    WHERE po.reference = 'SBELL-20021009123335280PDT';
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation                    | Name                   | Rows  | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT             |                        |    17 | 20366 |    11   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|   1 |  NESTED LOOPS                |                        |       |       |            |          |
|   2 |   NESTED LOOPS               |                        |    17 | 20366 |    11   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|   3 |    NESTED LOOPS              |                        |     1 |   539 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  4 |     TABLE ACCESS FULL        | PO_IDX_TAB             |     1 |   529 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  5 |     INDEX UNIQUE SCAN        | SYS_C006320            |     1 |    10 |     0   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  6 |    INDEX RANGE SCAN          | SYS69412_69421_PKY_IDX |    17 |       |     1   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|   7 |   TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| PO_INDEX_LINEITEM      |    17 | 11203 |     8   (0)| 00:00:01 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
 
   4 - filter("SYS_ALIAS_8"."REFERENCE"='SBELL-20021009123335280PDT')
   5 - access("SYS_ALIAS_8"."OID"="P"."SYS_NC_OID$")
   6 - access("SYS_ALIAS_8"."KEY"="SYS_ALIAS_9"."PKEY")
 
Note
-----
   - dynamic sampling used for this statement
 
25 rows selected.

The execution plan shows direct access to the relational index content tables, po_idx_tab and po_index_lineitem. There is no access at all to the path table, path_tab.

Turning Off Use of XMLIndex

You can turn off the use of XMLIndex in any of these ways:

• Use optimizer hint /*+ NO_XML_QUERY_REWRITE */

• Use optimizer hint /*+ NO_XMLINDEX_REWRITE */

Hints NO_XML_QUERY_REWRITE and NO_XMLINDEX_REWRITE turn off the use of all XMLIndex indexes. In addition to turning off use of XMLIndex, NO_XML_QUERY_REWRITE turns off all XQuery optimization (XMLIndex is part of XPath rewrite).

Example 6-30 shows the use of these optimizer hints.

SELECT /*+ NO_XMLINDEX_REWRITE */ 
  count(*) FROM po_clob WHERE XMLExists('$p/*' PASSING OBJECT_VALUE AS "p");

SELECT /*+ NO_XML_QUERY_REWRITE */
  count(*) FROM po_clob WHERE XMLExists('$p/*' PASSING OBJECT_VALUE AS "p");

XMLIndex Path Subsetting: Specifying the Paths You Want to Index

One of the advantages of an XMLIndex index with an unstructured component is that it is very general: you need not specify which XPath locations to index; you need no prior knowledge of the XPath expressions that will be queried. By default, an unstructured XMLIndex indexes all possible XPath locations in your XML data.

However, if you are aware of the XPath expressions that you are most likely to query, then you can narrow the focus of XMLIndex indexing and thus improve performance. Having fewer indexed nodes means less space is required for indexing, which improves index maintenance during DML operations. Having fewer indexed nodes improves DDL performance, and having a smaller path table improves query performance.

You narrow the focus of indexing by pruning the set of XPath expressions (paths) corresponding to XML fragments to be indexed, specifying a subset of all possible paths. You can do this in two alternative ways:

• Exclusion – Start with the default behavior of including all possible XPath expressions, and exclude some of them from indexing.

• Inclusion – Start with an empty set of XPath expressions to be used in indexing, and add paths to this inclusion set.

You can specify path subsetting either when you create an XMLIndex index using CREATE INDEX or when you modify it using ALTER INDEX. In both cases, you provide the subsetting information in the PATHS parameter of the statement's PARAMETERS clause. For exclusion, you use keyword EXCLUDE. For inclusion, you use keyword INCLUDE for ALTER INDEX and no keyword for CREATE INDEX (list the paths to include). You can also specify namespace mappings for the nodes targeted by the PATHS parameter.

For ALTER INDEX, keyword INCLUDE or EXCLUDE is followed by keyword ADD or REMOVE, to indicate whether the list of paths that follows the keyword is to be added or removed from the inclusion or exclusion list. For example, this statement adds path /PurchaseOrder/Reference to the list of paths to be excluded from indexing:

ALTER INDEX po_xmlindex_ix REBUILD
  PARAMETERS ('PATHS (EXCLUDE ADD (/PurchaseOrder/Reference))');

To alter an XMLIndex index so that it includes all possible paths, use keyword INDEX_ALL_PATHS. See "alter_index_paths_clause ::=".

CREATE INDEX po_xmlindex_ix ON po_clob (OBJECT_VALUE) INDEXTYPE IS XDB.XMLINDEX
  PARAMETERS ('PATHS (INCLUDE (/PurchaseOrder/LineItems//* 
                               /PurchaseOrder/Reference))');

ALTER INDEX po_xmlindex_ix REBUILD
  PARAMETERS ('PATHS (INCLUDE ADD (/PurchaseOrder/Requestor 
                                   /PurchaseOrder/Actions/Action//*))');

CREATE INDEX po_xmlindex_ix ON po_clob (OBJECT_VALUE) INDEXTYPE IS XDB.XMLIndex
  PARAMETERS ('PATHS (INCLUDE (/PurchaseOrder/LineItems//*   /PurchaseOrder/ipo:Reference)
                     NAMESPACE MAPPING (xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com"
                                        xmlns:ipo="http://xmlns.oracle.com/ipo"))');

Guidelines for Using XMLIndex with an Unstructured Component

The following are some guidelines for using XMLIndex with an unstructured component. These guidelines are applicable only when the two alternatives discussed return the same result set.

• Avoid prefixing // with ancestor elements. For example, use //c, not /a/b//c, provided these return the same result set.

• Avoid prefixing /* with ancestor elements. For example, use /*/*/*, not /a/*/*, provided these return the same result set.

• In a WHERE clause, use XMLExists rather than XMLCast of XMLQuery. This can allow optimization that, in effect, invokes a subquery against the path-table VALUE column. For example, use this:

  SELECT count(*) FROM purchaseorder p 
    WHERE 
      XMLExists('$p/PurchaseOrder/LineItems/LineItem/Part[@Id="715515011020"]'
                    PASSING OBJECT_VALUE AS "p");
  

  Do not use this:

  SELECT count(*) FROM purchaseorder p
    WHERE XMLCast(XMLQuery('$p/PurchaseOrder/LineItems/LineItem/Part/@Id'
                           PASSING OBJECT_VALUE AS "p" RETURNING CONTENT)
                  AS VARCHAR2(14))
          = "715515011020";
  

• When possible, use count(*), not count(XMLCast(XMLQuery(...)), in a SELECT clause. For example, if you know that a LineItem element in a purchase-order document has only one Description child, use this:

  SELECT count(*) FROM po_clob, XMLTable('//LineItem' PASSING OBJECT_VALUE);
  

  Do not use this:

  SELECT count(li.value)
   FROM po_clob p, XMLTable('//LineItem' PASSING p.OBJECT_VALUE
                            COLUMNS value VARCHAR2(30) PATH 'Description') li;
  

• Reduce the number of XPath expressions used in a query FROM list as much as possible. For example, use this:

  SELECT li.description
    FROM po_clob p,
         XMLTable('PurchaseOrder/LineItems/LineItem' PASSING p.OBJECT_VALUE
                  COLUMNS description VARCHAR2(256) PATH 'Description') li;
  

  Do not use this:

  SELECT li.description
    FROM po_clob p,
         XMLTable('PurchaseOrder/LineItems' PASSING p.OBJECT_VALUE) ls,
         XMLTable('LineItems/LineItem'      PASSING ls.OBJECT_VALUE
                  COLUMNS description VARCHAR2(256) PATH 'Description') li;
  

• If you use an XPath expression in a query to drill down inside a virtual table (created, for example, using SQL/XML function XMLTable), then create a secondary index on the order key of the path table using Oracle SQL function sys_orderkey_depth. Here is an example of such a query; the selection navigates to element Description inside virtual line-item table li.

  SELECT li.description
    FROM po_clob p,
         XMLTable('PurchaseOrder/LineItems/LineItem' PASSING p.OBJECT_VALUE
                  COLUMNS description VARCHAR2(256) PATH 'Description') li;
  

  Such queries are evaluated using function sys_orderkey_depth, which returns the depth of the order-key value. Because the order index uses two columns, the index needed is a composite index over columns ORDER_KEY and RID, as well as over function sys_orderkey_depth applied to the ORDER_KEY value. For example:

  CREATE INDEX depth_ix ON my_path_table
    (RID, sys_orderkey_depth(ORDER_KEY), ORDER_KEY);
  

  See Also:

  Example 6-27 for an example that shows the use of sys_orderkey_depth

Guidelines for Using XMLIndex with a Structured Component

The following are some guidelines for using XMLIndex with a structured component.

• Use XMLIndex with a structured component to project and index XML data as relational columns. Do not use function-based indexes; they are deprecated for use with XML. See "Function-Based Indexes".

• Ensure data type correspondence between a query and an XMLIndex index that has a structured component. See "Data Type Considerations for XMLIndex Structured Component".

• If you create a relational view over XMLType data (for example, using SQL function XMLTable), then you consider also creating an XMLIndex index with a structured component that targets the same relational columns. See Chapter 19, "XMLType Views".

• Instead of using a single XQuery expression for both fragment extraction and value filtering (search), use SQL/XML function XMLQuery in the SELECT clause to extract fragments and XMLExists in the WHERE clause to filter values.

  This lets Oracle XML DB evaluate fragment extraction functionally or by using streaming evaluation. For value filtering, this lets Oracle XML DB pick up an XMLIndex index that has a relevant structured component.

• To order query results, use a SQL ORDER BY clause, together with SQL/XML function XMLTable. Avoid using the XQuery order by clause. This is particularly pertinent if you use an XMLIndex index with a structured component.

XMLIndex Partitioning and Parallelism

If you partition an XMLType table, or a table with an XMLType column using range or list partitioning, you can also create an XMLIndex index on the table. If you use the keyword LOCAL when you create the XMLIndex index, then the index and all of its storage tables are locally equipartitioned with respect to the base table.

If you do not use the keyword LOCAL, then you cannot create an XMLIndex index on a partitioned table. Also, if you hash-partition a table, then you cannot create an XMLIndex index on it.

You can use a PARALLEL clause (with optional degree) when creating or altering an XMLIndex index to ensure that index creation and maintenance are carried out in parallel. If the base table is partitioned or enabled for parallelism, then this can improve the performance for both DML operations (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) and index DDL operations (CREATE, ALTER, REBUILD).

Specifying parallelism for an index can also consume more storage, because storage parameters apply separately to each query server process. For example, an index created with an INITIAL value of 5M and a parallelism degree of 12 consumes at least 60M of storage during index creation.

The syntax for the parallelism clause for CREATE INDEX and ALTER INDEX is the same as for other domain indexes:

{ NOPARALLEL | PARALLEL [ integer ] }

Example 6-34 creates an XMLIndex index with a parallelism degree of 10. If the base table is partitioned, then this index is equipartitioned.

CREATE INDEX po_xmlindex_ix ON sale_info (sale_po_clob) INDEXTYPE IS XDB.XMLIndex 
  LOCAL PARALLEL 10;

In Example 6-34, the path table and the secondary indexes are created with the same parallelism degree as the XMLIndex index itself, 10, by inheritance. You can specify different parallelism degrees for these by using separate PARALLEL clauses. Example 6-35 demonstrates this. Again, because of keyword LOCAL, if the base table is partitioned, then this index is equipartitioned.

CREATE INDEX po_xmlindex_ix ON sale_info (sale_po_clob) INDEXTYPE IS XDB.XMLIndex 
  LOCAL PARAMETERS ('PATH TABLE po_path_table (PARALLEL 10)
                     PIKEY INDEX po_pikey_ix
                     VALUE INDEX po_value_ix (PARALLEL 5)') NOPARALLEL;

In Example 6-35, the XMLIndex index itself is created serially, because of NOPARALLEL. The secondary index po_pikey_ix is also populated serially, because no parallelism is specified explicitly for it; it inherits the parallelism of the XMLIndex index. The path table itself is created with a parallelism degree of 10, and the secondary index value column, po_value_ix, is populated with a degree of 5, due to their explicit parallelism specifications.

Any parallelism you specify for an XMLIndex index, its path table, or its secondary indexes is exploited during subsequent DML operations and queries.

Note that there are two places where you can specify parallelism for XMLIndex: within the PARAMETERS clause parenthetical expression and after it.

Asynchronous (Deferred) Maintenance of XMLIndex Indexes

This feature applies to an XMLIndex index that has only an unstructured component. If you specify asynchronous maintenance for an XMLIndex index that has a structured component, then an error is raised.

By default, XMLIndex indexing is updated (maintained) at each DML operation, so that it remains in sync with the base table. In some situations, you might not require this, and using possibly stale indexes might be acceptable. In that use case, you can decide to defer the cost of index maintenance, performing at commit time only or at some time when database load is reduced. This can improve DML performance. It can also improve index maintenance performance by enabling bulk loading of unsynchronized index rows when an index is synchronized.

Using a stale index has no effect, other than performance, on DML operations. It can have an effect on query results, however: If the index is not up-to-date at query time, then the query results might not be up-to-date either. Even if only one column of a base table is of data type XMLType, all queries on that table reflect the database data as of the last synchronization of the XMLIndex index on the XMLType column.

You can specify index maintenance deferment using the parameters clause of a CREATE INDEX or ALTER INDEX statement.

Be aware that even if you defer synchronization for an XMLIndex index, the following database operations automatically synchronize the index:

• Any DDL operation on the index – ALTER INDEX or creation of secondary indexes

• Any DDL operation on the base table – ALTER TABLE or creation of another index

Table 6-7 lists the synchronization options and the ASYNC clause syntax you use to specify them. The ASYNC clause is used in the PARAMETERS clause of a CREATE INDEX or ALTER INDEX statement for XMLIndex.

Optional ASYNC syntax parameter STALE is intended for possible future use; you need never specify it explicitly. It has value FALSE whenever ALWAYS is used; otherwise it has value TRUE. Specifying an explicit STALE value that contradicts this rule raises an error.

Example 6-36 creates an XMLIndex index that is synchronized every Monday at 3:00 pm, starting tomorrow.

CREATE INDEX po_xmlindex_ix ON po_clob (OBJECT_VALUE) INDEXTYPE IS XDB.XMLIndex
  PARAMETERS ('ASYNC (SYNC EVERY "FREQ=HOURLY; INTERVAL = 1")');

Example 6-37 manually synchronizes the index created in Example 6-36.

EXEC DBMS_XMLINDEX.SyncIndex('OE', 'PO_XMLINDEX_IX', REINDEX => TRUE);

When XMLIndex index synchronization is deferred, all DML changes (inserts, updates, and deletions) made to the base table since the last index synchronization are recorded in a pending table, one row per DML operation. The name of this table is the value of column PEND_TABLE_NAME of static public views USER_XML_INDEXES, ALL_XML_INDEXES, and DBA_XML_INDEXES.

You can examine this table to determine when synchronization might be appropriate for a given XMLIndex index. The more rows there are in the pending table, the more the index is likely to be in need of synchronization.

If the pending table is large, then setting parameter REINDEX to TRUE when calling SyncIndex, as in Example 6-37, can improve performance. When REINDEX is TRUE, all of the secondary indexes are dropped and then re-created after the pending table data is bulk-loaded.

Collecting Statistics on XMLIndex Objects for the Cost-Based Optimizer

The Oracle Database cost-based optimizer determines how to most cost-effectively evaluate a given query, including which indexes, if any, to use. For it to be able to do this accurately, you must collect statistics on various database objects.

For XMLIndex, you normally need to collect statistics on only the base table on which the XMLIndex index is defined (using, for example, procedure DBMS_STATS.gather_table_stats). This automatically collects statistics for the XMLIndex index itself, as well as the path table, its secondary indexes, and any structured component content tables and their secondary indexes.

If you delete statistics on the base table (using procedure DBMS_STATS.delete_table_stats), then statistics on the other objects are also deleted. Similarly, if you collect statistics on the XMLIndex index (using procedure DBMS_STATS.gather_index_stats), then statistics are also collected on the path table, its secondary indexes, and any structured component content tables and their secondary indexes.

Example 6-38 collects statistics on the base table po_clob. Statistics are automatically collected on the XMLIndex index, its path table, and the secondary path-table indexes.

CALL DBMS_STATS.gather_table_stats(USER, 'PO_CLOB', ESTIMATE_PERCENT => NULL);

Data Dictionary Static Public Views Related to XMLIndex

Information about the standard database indexes is available in static public views USER_INDEXES, ALL_INDEXES, and DBA_INDEXES. Similar information about XMLIndex indexes is available in static public views USER_XML_INDEXES, ALL_XML_INDEXES, and DBA_XML_INDEXES.

Table 6-8 describes the columns in each of these views.

These views provide information about an XMLIndex index, but there is no single catalog view that provides information about the statistics gathered for an XMLIndex index. This statistics information is distributed among the following views:

• USER_INDEXES, ALL_INDEXES, DBA_INDEXES – Column LAST_ANALYZED provides the date when the XMLIndex index was last analyzed.

• USER_TAB_STATISTICS, ALL_TAB_STATISTICS, DBA_TAB_STATISTICS – Column TABLE_NAME provides information about the structured and unstructured components of an XMLIndex index. For information about the structured or unstructured component, query using the name of the path table or the XMLTable table as TABLE_NAME, respectively.

• USER_IND_STATISTICS, ALL_IND_STATISTICS, DBA_IND_STATISTICS – Column INDEX_NAME provides information about each of the secondary indexes for an XMLIndex index. for information about a given secondary index, query using the name of that secondary index as INDEX_NAME.

PARAMETERS Clause for CREATE INDEX and ALTER INDEX

This section describes the usage and syntax of the PARAMETERS clause for SQL statements CREATE INDEX and ALTER INDEX when used with XMLIndex.

PARAMETERS Clause Syntax for CREATE INDEX and ALTER INDEX

XMLIndex_parameters_clause ::=

Description of the illustration xmlindex_parameters_clause.gif

See Also:

"Usage of XMLIndex_parameters_clause"

XMLIndex_parameters ::=

Description of the illustration xmlindex_parameters.gif

See Also:

"Usage of XMLIndex_parameters"

XMLIndex_parameter_clause ::=

Description of the illustration xmlindex_parameter_clause.gif

unstructured_clause ::=

Description of the illustration unstructured_clause.gif

create_index_paths_clause ::=

Description of the illustration create_index_paths_clause.gif

See Also:

• "Usage of PATHS Clause"

• "Usage of create_index_paths_clause and alter_index_paths_clause"

alter_index_paths_clause ::=

Description of the illustration alter_index_paths_clause.gif

See Also:

• "Usage of PATHS Clause"

• "Usage of create_index_paths_clause and alter_index_paths_clause"

namespace_mapping_clause ::=

Description of the illustration namespace_mapping_clause.gif

path_table_clause ::=

Description of the illustration path_table_clause.gif

pikey_clause ::=

Description of the illustration pikey_clause.gif

See Also:

"Usage of pikey_clause, path_id_clause, and order_key_clause"

path_id_clause ::=

Description of the illustration path_id_clause.gif

See Also:

"Usage of pikey_clause, path_id_clause, and order_key_clause"

order_key_clause ::=

Description of the illustration order_key_clause.gif

See Also:

"Usage of pikey_clause, path_id_clause, and order_key_clause"

value_clause ::=

Description of the illustration value_clause.gif

See Also:

"Usage of value_clause"

drop_path_table_clause ::=

Description of the illustration drop_path_table_clause.gif

parallel_clause ::=

Description of the illustration parallel_clause.gif

structured_clause ::=

Description of the illustration structured_clause.gif

See Also:

"Usage of groups_clause and alter_index_group_clause"

async_clause ::=

Description of the illustration async_clause.gif

See Also:

"Usage of async_clause"

groups_clause ::=

Description of the illustration groups_clause.gif

See Also:

"Usage of groups_clause and alter_index_group_clause"

group_clause ::=

Description of the illustration group_clause.gif

See Also:

"Usage of groups_clause and alter_index_group_clause"

XMLIndex_xmltable_clause ::=

Description of the illustration xmlindex_xmltable_clause.gif

Syntax elements XML_namespaces_clause and XQuery_string are the same as for SQL/XML function XMLTable.

See Also:

• "Usage of XMLIndex_xmltable_clause"

• "XMLTABLE SQL/XML Function in Oracle XML DB"

column_clause ::=

Description of the illustration column_clause.gif

Syntax element column_clause is similar, but not identical, to XML_table_column in SQL/XML function XMLTable.

See Also:

• "Usage of column_clause"

• "XMLTABLE SQL/XML Function in Oracle XML DB"

alter_index_group_clause ::=

Description of the illustration alter_index_group_clause.gif

See Also:

"Usage of groups_clause and alter_index_group_clause"

add_column_clause :==

Description of the illustration add_column_clause.gif

add_column_options :==

Description of the illustration add_column_options.gif

Syntax element XML_namespaces_clause is the same as for SQL/XML function XMLTable. See "XMLTABLE SQL/XML Function in Oracle XML DB".

drop_column_clause :==

Description of the illustration drop_column_clause.gif

drop_column_options :==

Description of the illustration drop_column_options.gif

Creating and Using Oracle Text Indexes

To create an Oracle Text index, use CREATE INDEX, specifying the INDEXTYPE as CTXSYS.CONTEXT, as illustrated in Example 6-39.

CREATE INDEX po_otext_ix ON po_clob (OBJECT_VALUE) INDEXTYPE IS CTXSYS.CONTEXT;

You can also perform Oracle Text operations such as contains and score on XMLType columns. Example 6-40 shows an Oracle Text search using Oracle SQL function contains.

SELECT DISTINCT XMLCast(XMLQuery('$p/PurchaseOrder/ShippingInstructions/address'
                                 PASSING po.OBJECT_VALUE AS "p" RETURNING CONTENT)
                        AS VARCHAR2(256)) "Address"
  FROM po_clob po
  WHERE contains(po.OBJECT_VALUE,
                 '$(Fortieth) INPATH (PurchaseOrder/ShippingInstructions/address)') > 0;
 
Address
------------------------------
1200 East Forty Seventh Avenue
New York
NY
10024
USA
 
1 row selected.

PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plan hash value: 274475732
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation                    | Name        | Rows  | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT             |             |     7 | 14098 |    10  (10)| 00:00:01 |
|   1 |  HASH UNIQUE                 |             |     7 | 14098 |    10  (10)| 00:00:01 |
|   2 |   TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| PO_CLOB     |     7 | 14098 |     9   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  3 |    DOMAIN INDEX              | PO_OTEXT_IX |       |       |     4   (0)| 00:00:01 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------

   3 - access("CTXSYS"."CONTAINS"(SYS_MAKEXML('2B0A2483AB140B35E040578C8A173FEC',523
              3,"XMLDATA"),'$(Fortieth) INPATH (PurchaseOrder/ShippingInstructions/address)')>0)
 
20 rows selected.

Oracle Text Indexes Are Used Independently of Other Indexes

Oracle Text indexing is completely orthogonal to the other types of indexing described in this chapter. Whenever Oracle SQL function contains or XPath function ora:contains is used, an Oracle Text index can be used for full-text search.

Example 6-41 demonstrates this in the case where both an XMLIndex index and an Oracle Text index are defined on the same XML data. The query is the same as in Example 6-40. The Oracle Text index is created on the VALUE column of the XMLIndex path table of Example 6-9.

CREATE INDEX po_otext_ix ON my_path_table (VALUE) INDEXTYPE IS CTXSYS.CONTEXT;

EXPLAIN PLAN FOR
  SELECT DISTINCT XMLCast(XMLQuery('$p/PurchaseOrder/ShippingInstructions/address'
                                   PASSING po.OBJECT_VALUE AS "p" RETURNING CONTENT)
                          AS VARCHAR2(256)) "Address"
    FROM po_clob po
    WHERE contains(po.OBJECT_VALUE,
                   '$(Fortieth) INPATH (PurchaseOrder/ShippingInstructions/address)') > 0;

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation                    | Name                         | Rows  | Bytes | Cost (%CPU)| Time     |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT             |                              |     7 | 14098 |     3  (34)| 00:00:01 |
|   1 |  SORT GROUP BY               |                              |     1 |  3524 |            |          |
|*  2 |   TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| MY_PATH_TABLE                |     2 |  7048 |     3   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|*  3 |    INDEX RANGE SCAN          | SYS67616_PO_XMLINDE_PIKEY_IX |     1 |       |     2   (0)| 00:00:01 |
|   4 |  HASH UNIQUE                 |                              |     7 | 14098 |     3  (34)| 00:00:01 |
|*  5 |   TABLE ACCESS FULL          | PO_CLOB                      |     7 | 14098 |     2   (0)| 00:00:01 |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
 
   2 - filter(SYS_XMLI_LOC_ISNODE("SYS_P0"."LOCATOR")=1)
   3 - access("SYS_P0"."RID"=:B1 AND "SYS_P0"."PATHID"=HEXTORAW('6F7F') )
   5 - filter("CTXSYS"."CONTAINS"(SYS_MAKEXML(0,"SYS_ALIAS_1"."XMLDATA"),'$(Fortieth) INPATH
              (PurchaseOrder/ShippingInstructions/address)')>0)
 
Note
-----
   - dynamic sampling used for this statement (level=2)
   - Unoptimized XML construct detected (enable XMLOptimizationCheck for more information)
 
24 rows selected.

The execution plan in Example 6-41 references both the XMLIndex index and the Oracle Text index, indicating that both are used.

• The XMLIndex index is indicated by its path table, MY_PATH_TABLE, and its order-key index, SYS78942_PO_XMLINDE_ORDKEY_IX.

• The Oracle Text index is indicated by the reference to Oracle SQL function contains in the predicate information.