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Oracle DBA Pocket Guide
Static Views
While new views are added with every version of Oracle, the
static data dictionary views have existed in their current for-
mat since Oracle6. These are views owned by SYS that are
built upon tables owned by SYS; they provide the ability to
access information about database objects.
Families of views
Most of the static data dictionary is constructed in a matrix
fashion. The first way to categorize data dictionary views is
by the breadth of information they cover. Most views can be
divided into three groups:
USER_
Views that allow you to see objects you own. Most view
names begin with USER_ (e.g., USER_TABLES and
USER_INDEXES).
ALL_
Views that allow you to see objects that you own or that
you have been granted privileges to access. Most of these
view names begin with ALL_ (e.g., ALL_TABLES and
ALL_INDEXES).
DBA_
Views that allow you to see all objects in the database,
regardless of who owns them These views are primarily
for use by the DBA and most of them begin with DBA_
(e.g., DBA_TABLES and DBA_INDEXES).
There are also a handful of other views that provide informa-
tion of general interest about the database.
The ALL_ views have the same structure as the DBA_ views.
The USER_ views have the same structure as the DBA_ views
except that they do not include the OWNER column. The
views that exist in multiple forms are listed below in the form
*_viewname. So, for example, ...