Chapter 13. Managing Indexes

Terms you'll need to understand:

• CREATE INDEX

• CREATE UNIQUE INDEX

• CREATE BITMAP INDEX

• ALTER INDEX

• DEALLOCATE UNUSED

• REBUILD

• VALIDATE STRUCTURE

• DROP INDEX

• DBA_INDEXES

• DBA_IND_COLUMNS

• DBA_OBJECTS

• INDEX_STATS

• CREATE_BITMAP_AREA_SIZE

Concepts you'll need to master:

• List the different types of indexes.

• Describe the uses of different indexes.

• Create different types of indexes.

• Reorganize indexes.

• Drop indexes.

• Get index information from the data dictionary.

• Monitor index usage.

And now we launch on our discussion of indexes. Indexes are optional structures associated with tables and clusters. Indexes can be created on one or more columns of a table to speed SQL statement execution on that table. In this chapter we will discuss the different types of indexes and when you would choose one type over another.