Monday, November 7, 2011

cluster index and Non-clustered index introduce

Non-clustered:
The data is present in random order, but the logical ordering is specified by the index. The data rows may be randomly spread throughout the table. The non-clustered index tree contains the index keys in sorted order, with the leaf level of the index containing the pointer to the page and the row number in the data page. In non-clustered index:

The physical order of the rows is not the same as the index order.
Typically created on column used in JOIN, WHERE, and ORDER BY clauses.
Good for tables whose values may be modified frequently.

Clustered:
Clustering alters the data block into a certain distinct order to match the index, resulting in the row data being stored in order. Therefore, only one clustered index can be created on a given database table. Clustered indices can greatly increase overall speed of retrieval, but usually only where the data is accessed sequentially in the same or reverse order of the clustered index, or when a range of items is selected.

Since the physical records are in this sort order on disk, the next row item in the sequence is immediately before or after the last one, and so fewer data block reads are required. The primary feature of a clustered index is therefore the ordering of the physical data rows in accordance with the index blocks that point to them. Some databases separate the data and index blocks into separate files, others put two completely different data blocks within the same physical file(s). Create an object where the physical order of rows is same as the index order of the rows and the bottom(leaf) level of clustered index contains the actual data rows.

They are known as "index organized tables" under Oracle database.

Cluster (Oracle)

In Oracle database, multiple tables can be joined into a cluster (not to be confused with clustered index described above). The records for the tables sharing the value of a cluster key shall be stored together in the same or nearby data blocks. This may improve the joins of these tables on the cluster key, since the matching records are stored together and less I/O is required to locate them.The data layout in the tables which are parts of the cluster is defined by the cluster configuration. A cluster can be keyed with a B-Tree index or a hash table. The data block in which the table record will be stored is defined by the value of the cluster key.

IOT:
Oracle Index-organized tables (IOTs) are a unique style of table structure that is stored in a B-tree index structure. Besides storing the primary key values of an Oracle indexed-organized tables row, each index entry in the B-tree also stores the non-key column values. Oracle Indexed-organized tables provide faster access to table rows by the primary key or any key that is a valid prefix of the primary key. Because the non-key columns of a row are present in the B-tree leaf block itself, there is no additional block access for index blocks.

Example:
Clustered:
In the following example, notice the Employee table is stored in DNO order. So a clustering index is created on the DNO column






















Non-clustered:
In the following example, the table is stored in SSN order, however, a secondary index is created on the LNAME column.

2 comments:

  1. Excellent post. You have explained this concept in such a great way that after reading it just once I have understood it easily. I find this topic very confusing and difficult but from this article it was so easy. Thanks for posting it.
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