Indexing a LOB Column

You cannot build B-tree or bitmap indexes on a LOB column. However, depending on your application and its usage of the LOB column, you might be able to improve the performance of queries by building indexes specifically attuned to your domain. Oracle8i's extensibility interfaces allow for domain indexing, a framework for implementing such domain specific indexes.

See Also: Oracle8i Data Cartridge Developer's Guide, for information on building domain specific indexes.

Depending on the nature of the contents of the LOB column, one of the Oracle8i interMedia options could also be used for building indexes. For example, if a text document is stored in a CLOB column, you can build a text index (provided by Oracle) to speed up the performance of text-based queries over the CLOB column.

See Also: Oracle8i interMedia Audio, Image, and Video User's Guide and Reference and Oracle8i interMedia Text Reference, for more information regarding Oracle's intermedia options.