Beginning Oracle Database 12c Administration: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition

CHAPTER 17

SQL Tuning

Every limbo boy and girl

All around the limbo world

Gonna do the limbo rock

All around the limbo clock

“Limbo Rock,” recorded by Chubby Checker in 1962

Perhaps the most complex problem in database administration is SQL tuning, and it may not be a coincidence that I left it for the very end. The paucity of books devoted to SQL tuning is perhaps further evidence of the difficulty of the topic.

The only way to interact with Oracle, to retrieve data, to change data, and to administer the database is SQL. Oracle itself uses SQL to perform all the work that it does behind the scenes. SQL performance is therefore the key to database ...