8 CTX_DDL Package

The CTX_DDL PL/SQL package provides procedures to create and manage the preferences, section groups, and stoplists required for Text indexes.

CTX_DDL contains the following stored procedures and functions:

Name Description

ADD_ATTR_SECTION

Adds an attribute section to an XML section group.

ADD_AUTO_OPTIMIZE

Adds an index or partition to the list of indexes subject to auto optimization.

ADD_FIELD_SECTION

Creates a field section and assigns it to the specified section group.

ADD_INDEX

Adds an index to a catalog index preference.

ADD_MDATA

Changes the MDATA value of a document.

ADD_MDATA_COLUMN

Maps a FILTER BY column to the specified MDATA section.

ADD_MDATA_SECTION

Adds an MDATA metadata section to a document.

ADD_NDATA_SECTION

Adds an NDATA section to a document.

ADD_SDATA_COLUMN

Maps a FILTER BY column to the specified SDATA section.

ADD_SDATA_SECTION

Adds an SDATA structured data section to a document.

ADD_SEC_GRP_ATTR_VAL

Adds a section group attribute value to the list of values of an already existing section group attribute.

ADD_SPECIAL_SECTION

Adds a special section to a section group.

ADD_STOPCLASS

Adds a stopclass to a stoplist.

ADD_STOP_SECTION

Adds a stop section to an automatic section group.

ADD_STOPTHEME

Adds a stoptheme to a stoplist.

ADD_STOPWORD

Adds a stopword to a stoplist.

ADD_SUB_LEXER

Adds a sub-lexer to a multi-lexer preference.

ADD_ZONE_SECTION

Creates a zone section and adds it to the specified section group.

COPY_POLICY

Creates a copy of a policy.

CREATE_INDEX_SET

Creates an index set for CTXCAT index types.

CREATE_POLICY

Creates a policy to use with ORA:CONTAINS().

CREATE_PREFERENCE

Creates a preference in the Text data dictionary.

CREATE_SECTION_GROUP

Creates a section group in the Text data dictionary.

CREATE_SHADOW_INDEX

Creates a policy for the passed-in index. For nonpartitioned index, also creates an index table.

CREATE_STOPLIST

Creates a stoplist.

DROP_INDEX_SET

Drops an index set.

DROP_POLICY

Drops a policy.

DROP_PREFERENCE

Deletes a preference from the Text data dictionary.

DROP_SECTION_GROUP

Deletes a section group from the Text data dictionary.

DROP_SHADOW_INDEX

Drops a shadow index.

DROP_STOPLIST

Drops a stoplist.

EXCHANGE_SHADOW_INDEX

Swaps the shadow index metadata and data.

LOAD_STOPLIST

 

OPTIMIZE_INDEX

Optimizes the index.

POPULATE_PENDING

Populates the pending queue with every rowid in the base table or table partition.

PREFERENCE_IMPLICIT_COMMIT

Specifies whether procedures related to CTX_DDL preferences issue an implicit commit.

RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE

Recreates the passed-in index.

REM_SEC_GRP_ATTR_VAL

Removes a specific section group attribute value from the list of values of an existing section group attribute.

REMOVE_AUTO_OPTIMIZE

Removes an index or partition from the list of indexes subject to auto optimization

REMOVE_INDEX

Removes an index from a CTXCAT index preference.

REMOVE_MDATA

Removes MDATA values from a document.

REMOVE_SECTION

Deletes a section from a section group.

REMOVE_STOPCLASS

Deletes a stopclass from a stoplist.

REMOVE_STOPTHEME

Deletes a stoptheme from a stoplist.

REMOVE_STOPWORD

Deletes a stopword from a stoplist.

REMOVE_SUB_LEXER

Deletes a sub-lexer from a multi-lexer preference.

REPLACE_INDEX_METADATA

Replaces metadata for local domain indexes.

SET_ATTRIBUTE

Sets a preference attribute.

SET_SEC_GRP_ATTR

Adds a section group-specific attribute to a section group identified by name.

SET_SECTION_ATTRIBUTE

Sets a section attribute.

SYNC_INDEX

Synchronizes the index.

UNSET_ATTRIBUTE

Removes a set attribute from a preference.

UPDATE_SUB_LEXER

Updates a sub-lexer.

UNSET_SEC_GRP_ATTR

Removes a section group specific attribute.

UPDATE_POLICY

Updates a policy.

UPDATE_SDATA

Updates an SDATA section.

Note:

Except CREATE_PREFERENCE and CREATE_SECTION_GROUP, the APIs in the CTX_DDL package do not support identifiers that are prefixed with the schema or owner name.

8.1 ADD_ATTR_SECTION

Adds an attribute section to an XML section group. This procedure is useful for defining attributes in XML documents as sections. This enables you to search XML attribute text with the WITHIN operator.

Note:

When you use AUTO_SECTION_GROUP, attribute sections are created automatically. Attribute sections created automatically are named in the form tag@attribute.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.ADD_ATTR_SECTION(
  group_name     IN    VARCHAR2,
  section_name   IN    VARCHAR2,
  tag            IN    VARCHAR2);
group_name

Specify the name of the XML section group. You can add attribute sections only to XML section groups.

section_name

Specify the name of the attribute section. This is the name used for WITHIN queries on the attribute text.

The section name you specify cannot contain the colon (:), comma (,), or dot (.) characters. The section name must also be unique within group_name. Section names are case-insensitive.

Attribute section names can be no more than 64 bytes long.

tag

Specify the name of the attribute in tag@attr form. This parameter is case-sensitive.

Examples

Consider an XML file that defines the BOOK tag with a TITLE attribute as follows:

<BOOK TITLE="Tale of Two Cities"> 
  It was the best of times. 
</BOOK> 

To define the title attribute as an attribute section, create an XML_SECTION_GROUP and define the attribute section as follows:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_section_group('myxmlgroup', 'XML_SECTION_GROUP');
ctx_ddl.add_attr_section('myxmlgroup', 'booktitle', 'BOOK@TITLE');
end;

When you define the TITLE attribute section as such and index the document set, you can query the XML attribute text as follows:

'Cities within booktitle'

Related Topic

"PREFERENCE_IMPLICIT_COMMIT"

8.2 ADD_AUTO_OPTIMIZE

Adds an index or partition to the list of indexes subject to auto optimization. For partitioned indexes, the name of the partition must be specified, or else an error occurs. For global indexes, STAGE_ITAB must be enabled, or else an error occurs.

Note:

In Oracle Database Release 21c, the procedures ADD_AUTO_OPTIMIZE and REMOVE_AUTO_OPTIMIZE, and the views CTX_AUTO_OPTIMIZE_INDEXES, CTX_USER_AUTO_OPTIMIZE_INDEXES and CTX_AUTO_OPTIMIZE_STATUS are deprecated.

The AUTO_OPTIMIZE feature improves the manageability of indexes that use the STAGE_ITAB feature. The STAGE_ITAB feature introduces a staging $G table to collect postings from newly synced documents.

The AUTO_OPTIMIZE feature has the following goals:

  • Enables you to register indexes and partitions to a background AUTO_OPTIMIZE process.

  • Automatically moves rows from the $G table to $I at appropriate times.

  • Movement of rows from $G to $I is done in a way to maximize query performance.

This procedure starts the background process if it has not already been started. The progress of the auto optimization is tracked by CTX logging.

The changes made by this procedure take effect immediately.

Note:

The init.ora parameter JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES must be set to one or higher. See Oracle Database Reference for more information about JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.ADD_AUTO_OPTIMIZE(
    idx_name       IN VARCHAR2,
    part_name      IN VARCHAR2 default NULL,
    optlevel       IN VARCHAR2 default CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_MERGE
);
idx_name

Specify the name of the index to add.

part_name

Specify the name of the partition to add.

optlevel

Specifies the optlevel of the CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX procedure. The only valid value for this parameter is merge.

Notes

The recommended sequence of steps for using auto optimization is:

  1. Create the required indexes.

  2. Add these indexes to the auto optimization list by using the CTX_DDL.ADD_AUTO_OPTIMIZE procedure.

The synchronize index operation automatically begins executing an auto optimization job (unless it is already running). This job continues until it runs out of work. Future synchronize index operations will automatically start executing the auto optimization job, if it is not already running.

Related Topics

"REMOVE_AUTO_OPTIMIZE"

Oracle Text Application Developer's Guide for information about using STAGE_ITAB with CONTEXT indexes

SYNC_INDEX

8.3 ADD_FIELD_SECTION

Creates a field section and adds the section to an existing section group. This enables field section searching with the WITHIN operator. You can add an unlimited number of field sections.

Field sections are delimited by start and end tags. By default, the text within field sections are indexed as a sub-document separate from the rest of the document.

Unlike zone sections, field sections cannot nest or overlap. As such, field sections are best suited for non-repeating, non-overlapping sections such as TITLE and AUTHOR markup in e-mail- or news-type documents.

Because of how field sections are indexed, WITHIN queries on field sections are usually faster than WITHIN queries on zone sections.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.ADD_FIELD_SECTION(
  group_name     IN    VARCHAR2,
  section_name   IN    VARCHAR2,
  tag            IN    VARCHAR2,
  visible        IN    BOOLEAN default FALSE
);
group_name

Specify the name of the section group to which section_name is added. You can add an unlimited number of field sections to a single section group. Within the same group, section zone names and section field names cannot be the same.

section_name

Specify the name of the section to add to the group_name. Use this name to identify the section in queries. Avoid using names that contain non-alphanumeric characters such as _, because these characters must be escaped in queries. Section names are case-insensitive.

Note:

The section_name may not be prefixed by the schema or the owner name as this syntax is not supported.

Within the same group, zone section names and field section names cannot be the same. The terms Paragraph and Sentence are reserved for special sections.

Section names need not be unique across tags. You can assign the same section name to more than one tag, which makes details transparent to searches.

tag

Specify the tag that marks the start of a section. For example, if the tag is <H1>, then specify H1. The start tag you specify must be unique within a section group.

Note:

The tag may not be prefixed by the schema or the owner name as this syntax is not supported.

If group_name is an HTML_SECTION_GROUP, then you can create field sections for the META tag's NAME/CONTENT attribute pairs. To do so, specify tag as meta@namevalue where namevalue is the value of the NAME attribute whose CONTENT attribute is to be indexed as a section. Refer to the example "Creating Sections for <META> Tags".

Oracle Text knows what the end tags look like from the group_type parameter you specify when you create the section group.

visible

Specify TRUE to make the text visible within the rest of the document.

By default the visible flag is FALSE. This means that Oracle Text indexes the text within field sections as a sub-document separate from the rest of the document. However, you can set the visible flag to TRUE if you want text within the field section to be indexed as part of the enclosing document.

Examples

Visible and Invisible Field Sections

The following example defines a section group basicgroup of the BASIC_SECTION_GROUP type. (See "Section Group Types" for information about the BASIC_SECTION_GROUP type.) The example then creates a field section in basicgroup called Author for the <A> tag.

The example also sets the visible flag to FALSE:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_section_group('basicgroup', 'BASIC_SECTION_GROUP');
ctx_ddl.add_field_section('basicgroup', 'Author', 'A', FALSE);
end;

Because the Author field section is not visible, to find text within the Author section, you must use the WITHIN operator as follows:

'(Martin Luther King) WITHIN Author'

A query of Martin Luther King without the WITHIN operator does not return instances of this term in field sections. To query text within field sections without specifying WITHIN, you must set the visible flag to TRUE when you create the section as follows:

begin
ctx_ddl.add_field_section('basicgroup', 'Author', 'A', TRUE);
end;

Creating Sections for <META> Tags

When you use the HTML_SECTION_GROUP, you can create sections for META tags.

Consider an HTML document that has a META tag as follows:

<META NAME="author" CONTENT="ken">

To create a field section that indexes the CONTENT attribute for the <META NAME="author"> tag:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_section_group('myhtmlgroup', 'HTML_SECTION_GROUP');
ctx_ddl.add_field_section('myhtmlgroup', 'author', 'META@AUTHOR');
end

After indexing with section group mygroup, query the document as follows:

'ken WITHIN author'

Limitations

Nested Sections

Field sections cannot be nested. For example, if you define a field section to start with <TITLE> and define another field section to start with <FOO>, the two sections cannot be nested as follows:

<TITLE> dog <FOO> cat </FOO> </TITLE>

To work with nested section define them as zone sections.

Repeated Sections

Repeated field sections are allowed, but WITHIN queries treat them as a single section. The following is an example of repeated field section in a document:

<TITLE> cat </TITLE>
<TITLE> dog </TITLE>

The query (dog and cat) within title returns the document, even though these words occur in different sections.

To have WITHIN queries distinguish repeated sections, define them as zone sections.

8.4 ADD_INDEX

Use this procedure to add a subindex to a catalog index preference. Create this preference by naming one or more columns in the base table.

Because you create subindexes to improve the response time of structured queries, the column you add should be used in the structured_query clause of the CATSEARCH operator at query time.

Note:

The Oracle Text indextype CTXCAT is deprecated with Oracle Database 23ai. The indextype itself, and it's operator CTXCAT, can be removed in a future release.

Both CTXCAT and the use of CTXCAT grammar as an alternative grammar for CONTEXT queries is deprecated. Instead, Oracle recommends that you use the CONTEXT indextype, which can provide all the same functionality, except that it is not transactional. Near-transactional behavior in CONTEXT can be achieved by using SYNC(ON COMMIT) or, preferably, SYNC(EVERY [time-period]) with a short time period.

CTXCAT was introduced when indexes were typically a few megabytes in size. Modern, large indexes, can be difficult to manage with CTXCAT. The addition of index sets to CTXCAT can be achieved more effectively by the use of FILTER BY and ORDER BY columns, or SDATA, or both, in the CONTEXT indextype. CTXCAT is therefore rarely an appropriate choice. Oracle recommends that you choose the more efficient CONTEXT indextype.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.ADD_INDEX(
           set_name        IN VARCHAR2,
           column_list     IN VARCHAR2,
           storage_clause  IN VARCHAR2 
);
set_name

Specify the name of the index set.

column_list

Specify a comma-delimited list of columns to index. At index time, any column listed here cannot have a NULL value in any row in the base table. If any row is NULL during indexing, then an error is raised.

Always ensure that your columns have non-NULL values before and after indexing.

Note:

A column name in column_list must not be prefixed by the owner, schema or table name.

storage_clause

Specify a storage clause.

Example

Consider a table called AUCTION with the following schema:

create table auction(
  item_id number,
  title varchar2(100),
  category_id number,
  price number,
  bid_close date);

Assume that queries on the table involve a mandatory text query clause and optional structured conditions on category_id. Results must be sorted based on bid_close.

You can create a catalog index to support the different types of structured queries a user might enter.

To create the indexes, first create the index set preference then add the required indexes to it:

begin
  ctx_ddl.create_index_set('auction_iset');
  ctx_ddl.add_index('auction_iset','bid_close');
  ctx_ddl.add_index('auction_iset','category_id, bid_close');
end;

Create the combined catalog index with CREATE INDEX as follows:

create index auction_titlex on AUCTION(title) indextype is CTXCAT parameters
('index set auction_iset');

Querying

To query the title column for the word pokemon, enter regular and mixed queries as follows:

select * from AUCTION where CATSEARCH(title, 'pokemon',NULL)> 0;
select * from AUCTION where CATSEARCH(title, 'pokemon', 'category_id=99 order by
bid_close desc')> 0;

Notes

VARCHAR2 columns in the column list of a CTXCAT index of an index set cannot exceed 30 bytes.

Related Topics

8.5 ADD_MDATA

Use this procedure to change the metadata of a document that has been specified as an MDATA section.

After this call, MDATA queries involving the named MDATA value will find documents with the given MDATA value.

There are two versions of CTX_DDL.ADD_MDATA: one for adding a single metadata value to a single rowid, and one for handing multiple values, multiple rowids, or both.

CTX_DDL.ADD_MDATA is transactional; it takes effect immediately in the calling session, can be seen only in the calling session, can be reversed with a ROLLBACK command, and must be committed to take permanent effect.

Use CTX_DDL.REMOVE_MDATA to remove metadata values from already-indexed documents. Only the owner of the index is allowed to call ADD_MDATA and REMOVE_MDATA.

Syntax

This is the syntax for adding a single value to a single rowid:

CTX_DDL.ADD_MDATA(
     idx_name           IN VARCHAR2, 
     section_name       IN VARCHAR2, 
     mdata_value        IN VARCHAR2,
     mdata_rowid        IN VARCHAR2,
     [part_name]        IN VARCHAR2]
);
idx_name

Name of the text index that contains the named rowid.

section_name

Name of the MDATA section.

mdata_value

The metadata value to add to the document.

mdata_rowid

The rowid to which to add the metadata value.

[part_name]

Name of the index partition, if any. Must be provided for local partitioned indexes and must be NULL for global, nonpartitioned indexes.

This is the syntax for handling multiple values, multiple rowids, or both. This version is more efficient for large numbers of new values or rowids.

CTX_DDL.ADD_MDATA(
     idx_name           IN VARCHAR2, 
     section_name       IN VARCHAR2, 
     mdata_values       SYS.ODCIVARCHAR2LIST,
     mdata_rowids       SYS.ODCIRIDLIST,
     [part_name]        IN VARCHAR2]
);
idx_name

Name of the text index that contains the named rowids.

section_name

Name of the MDATA section.

mdata_values

List of metadata values. If a metadata value contains a comma, the comma must be escaped with a backslash.

mdata_rowids

The rowids to which to add the metadata values.

[part_name]

Name of the index partition, if any. Must be provided for local partitioned indexes and must be NULL for global, nonpartitioned indexes.

Example

This example updates a single value:

select rowid from mytab where contains(text, 'MDATA(sec, value')>0;
No rows returned
exec ctx_ddl.add_mdata('my_index', 'sec', 'value', 'ABC');
select rowid from mytab where contains(text, 'MDATA(sec, value')>0;
ROWID
-----
ABC

This example updates multiple values:

begin
ctx_ddl.add_mdata('my_index', 'sec',
     sys.odcivarchar2list('value1','value2','value3'),
     sys.odciridlist('ABC','DEF'));
end;

This is equivalent to:

begin
ctx_ddl.add_mdata('my_index', 'sec', 'value1', 'ABC');
ctx_ddl.add_mdata('my_index', 'sec', 'value1', 'DEF');
ctx_ddl.add_mdata('my_index', 'sec', 'value2', 'ABC');
ctx_ddl.add_mdata('my_index', 'sec', 'value2', 'DEF');
ctx_ddl.add_mdata('my_index', 'sec', 'value3', 'ABC');
ctx_ddl.add_mdata('my_index', 'sec', 'value3', 'DEF');
end;

Note:

  • If a rowid is not yet indexed, CTX_DDL.ADD_MDATA completes without error, but an error is logged in CTX_USER_INDEX_ERRORS.

  • These updates are updates directly on the index itself, not on the actual contents stored in the base table. Therefore, they will not exist when the Text index is rebuilt.

  • CTX_DDL.ADD_MDATA is not supported for documents with Oracle Text search index as stage_itab is ON by default for Oracle Text search index.

Related Topics

"ADD_MDATA_SECTION"

"REMOVE_MDATA"

"MDATA"

See Also:

Chapter 8, "Searching Document Sections in Oracle Text" in Oracle Text Application Developer's Guide

8.6 ADD_MDATA_COLUMN

Use this procedure to map the FILTER BY column named in column_name to the MDATA section named in section_name.

Syntax

The syntax is as follows:

CTX_DDL.ADD_MDATA_COLUMN(
     group_name         IN VARCHAR2,
     section_name       IN VARCHAR2,
     column_name        IN VARCHAR2,
);
group_name

Name of the group that contains the section.

section_name

Name of the MDATA section.

column_name

Name of the FILTER BY column to add to the MDATA section.

Note:

The column_name must not be prefixed by the owner, schema or table name.

Restrictions

MDATA sections that are created with CTX_DDL.ADD_MDATA_COLUMN cannot have their values changed using CTX_DDL.ADD_MDATA or CTX_DDL.REMOVE_MDATA. Doing so will result in errors being returned. The section values must be updated using SQL.

Notes

  • The stored datatype for MDATA sections is text. Therefore, the value of the FILTER BY column is converted to text during indexing. For non-text datatypes, the FILTER BY columns are normalized to an internal format during indexing. If the section is queried with an MDATA operator, then the MDATA query string will also be normalized to the internal format before processing.

  • When a FILTER BY column is mapped as MDATA, the cost-based optimizer in Oracle Text tries to avoid using the Oracle Text composite domain index to process range predicate(s) on that FILTER BY column. This is because range predicates on MDATA FILTER BY columns are processed less efficiently than if they were declared as SDATA. For this reason, you should not add a FILTER BY column as MDATA if you plan to do range searches on the column.

Related Topics

"MDATA"

"ADD_MDATA_SECTION"

"REMOVE_MDATA"

"ADD_SDATA_COLUMN"

See Also:

Chapter 8, "Searching Document Sections in Oracle Text" in Oracle Text Application Developer's Guide

8.7 ADD_MDATA_SECTION

Use this procedure to add an MDATA section, with an accompanying value, to an existing section group. MDATA sections cannot be added to Null Section groups, Path Section groups, or Auto Section groups.

Section values undergo a simplified normalization:

  • Leading and trailing whitespace on the value is removed.

  • The value is truncated to 255 bytes.

  • The value is indexed as a single value; if the value consists of multiple words, it is not broken up.

  • Case is preserved. If the document is dynamically generated, then implement case-insensitivity by uppercasing MDATA values and making sure to search only in uppercase.

Use CTX_DDL.REMOVE_SECTION to remove sections.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.ADD_MDATA_SECTION(
     group_name    IN VARCHAR2,
     section_name  IN VARCHAR2, 
     tag           IN VARCHAR2, 
     read_only     IN BOOLEAN default FALSE);
group_name

Name of the section group that will contain the MDATA section.

section_name

Name of the MDATA section.

tag

The value of the MDATA section. For example, if the section is <AUTHOR>, the value could be Cynthia Kadohata (author of the novel The Floating World). More than one tag can be assigned to a given MDATA section.

read_only

FALSE (default) if you want to allow calling CTX_DDL.ADD_MDATA() and CTX_DDL.REMOVE_MDATA() for this MDATA section, and TRUE otherwise. When set to FALSE, the queries on the MDATA section run less efficiently because a cursor needs to be opened on the index table to track the deleted values for that MDATA section.

Example

This example creates an MDATA section called auth.

ctx_ddl.create_section_group('htmgroup', 'HTML_SECTION_GROUP');
ctx_ddl.add_mdata_section('htmgroup', 'auth', 'author', READ_ONLY);

Related Topics

"ADD_MDATA"

"REMOVE_MDATA"

"MDATA"

"CREATE_SECTION_GROUP "

See Also:

Chapter 8, "Searching Document Sections in Oracle Text" in Oracle Text Application Developer's Guide

8.8 ADD_NDATA_SECTION

Use this procedure to find matches that are spelled in a similar way. The value of an NDATA section is extracted from the document text like other sections, but is indexed as name data. NDATA sections are stored in the CTX_USER_SECTIONS view.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.ADD_NDATA_SECTION(
   group_name    IN VARCHAR2,
   section_name  IN VARCHAR2,
   tag           IN VARCHAR2
);
group_name

Name of the group that contains the section.

section_name

Name of the NDATA section.

tag

Name of the tag that marks the start of a section. For example, if the tag is <H1>, specify H1. The start tag you specify must be unique within a section group.

Notes

NDATA sections support both single and multi-byte data, however, there are character- and term-based limitations. NDATA section data that is indexed is constrained as follows:

  • number of characters in a single, white space delimited term

    511

  • number of white space delimited terms

    255

  • total number of characters, including white spaces

    511

NDATA section data that exceeds these constraints are truncated.

Example

The following example defines a section group namegroup of the BASIC_SECTION_GROUP type. It then creates an NDATA section in namegroup called firstname.

begin
  ctx_ddl.create_section_group('namegroup', 'BASIC_SECTION_GROUP');
  ctx_ddl.add_ndata_section('namegroup', 'firstname', 'fname1');
end;

8.9 ADD_SDATA_COLUMN

Use this procedure to map the FILTER BY or ORDER BY column (named in column_name) to the SDATA section (named in section_name). By default, all FILTER BY columns are mapped as SDATA.

Syntax

The syntax is as follows:

CTX_DDL.ADD_SDATA_COLUMN(
     group_name         IN VARCHAR2, 
     section_name       IN VARCHAR2, 
     column_name        IN VARCHAR2,
);
group_name

Name of the group that contains the section.

section_name

Name of the SDATA section.

column_name

Name of the FILTER BY column to add to the SDATA section.

Notes

  • Mapping FILTER BY columns to sections is optional. If no section mapping exists for a FILTER BY column, then it is mapped to an SDATA section, and the section name will be the name of the FILTER BY column.

  • If a section group is not specified during CREATE INDEX of a composite domain index, then system default section group settings is used, and a SDATA section is created for each of the FILTER BY and ORDER BY columns.

    Note:

    Because section name does not allow certain special characters and is case insensitive, if the column name is case sensitive or contains special characters, then an error is raised. To work around this problem, you need to map the column to an MDATA or SDATA section before creating the index.

  • An error will be raised if a column mapped to MDATA also appears in the ORDER BY column clause.

  • Column section names are unique to their section group. That is, you cannot have an MDATA column section named FOO if you already have an MDATA column section named FOO. Furthermore, you cannot have a field section named FOO if you already have an SDATA column section named FOO. This is true whether it is implicitly created (by CREATE INDEX for FILTER BY or ORDER BY clauses) or explicitly created (by CTX_DDL.ADD_SDATA_COLUMN).

  • One section name can only be mapped to one FILTER BY column, and vice versa. For example, mapping a section to more than one column or mapping a column to more than one section is not allowed.

  • Column sections can be added to any type of section group, including the NULL section group.

  • 99 is the maximum number for SDATA sections and columns.

  • If the datatype of a FILTER BY or ORDER BY column is DATE, then the DATE datatype values must conform to the YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS format. For example, to store a DATE value of "Nov. 24, 2006 10:32 PM 36 sec", the document appears as <TAG>2006-11-24 22:32:36</TAG>.

8.10 ADD_SDATA_SECTION

This procedure adds an SDATA section to a section group. By default, all FILTER BY columns are mapped as SDATA.

Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 2 (12.2), searchable multi-valued SDATA sections are supported. There is no restriction on the number of SDATA sections that can be created for an index. That is, the sum total of SDATA sections for an index, created implicitly with FILTER BY and ORDER BY, and explicitly with the CTX_DDL.ADD_SDATA_SECTION() procedure is not restricted anymore. The total number of CDI, including FILTER BY and ORDER BY is 32, but the number of SDATA sections supported is unlimited. There are two types of SDATA sections:
  • Searchable: Creates optimized for search SDATA sections which support multiple values per document for the section and efficient range search capability.

  • Sortable: Creates optimized for sort SDATA sections which support a single value per document for the section. If the optimized_for attribute is not set, then the default type of section is Sortable. The Composite Domain Index uses Sortable SDATA internally for efficient FILTER BY or ORDER BY evaluation.

Starting with Oracle Database Release 18c, group counts or facets are supported for SDATA sections that are created with the optimized_for attribute set to sort, search, or sort_and_search. The optimized_for attribute can be set by using the CTX_DDL.SET_SECTION_ATTRIBUTE procedure.

See Also:

Syntax

The syntax is as follows:

CTX_DDL.ADD_SDATA_SECTION(
     group_name         IN VARCHAR2, 
     section_name       IN VARCHAR2, 
     tag                IN VARCHAR2,
     datatype           IN VARCHAR2 default NULL,
);
group_name

Name of the group that contains the section.

section_name

Name of the SDATA section.

tag

Name of the tag to add to the SDATA section.

datatype

Specifies the stored format for the data, as well as the semantics of comparison in later use in SDATA operators. The Sortable SDATA sections support the following data types:

  • VARCHAR2

  • CHAR

  • RAW

  • NUMBER

  • DATE

The VARCHAR2 datatype stores up to 249 bytes of character data in the database character set. Values larger than this result in a per-document indexing error. Note that leading and trailing whitespace are always trimmed from SDATA section values when extracted by the sectioner. This is different than SDATA columns. Column values are never trimmed. No lexing is performed on the value from either kind of SDATA.

The CHAR datatype stores up to 249 bytes of character data in the database character set. Values larger than this result in a per-document indexing error. Note that leading and trailing whitespace are always trimmed from SDATA section values when extracted by the sectioner. This is different than SDATA columns. Column values are never trimmed. No lexing is performed on the value from either kind of SDATA. To be consistent with SQL, the comparisons of CHAR datatype SDATA values are blank-padded comparisons.

The RAW datatype stores up to 249 bytes of binary data. Values larger than this result in a per-document indexing error. The value is converted from hexadecimal string representation. That is, to store a value of 65, the document appears as <TAG>40</TAG>, and not <TAG>65</TAG> or <TAG>A</TAG>.

The DATE datatype values must conform to the following format: YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DD HH24:MI:SS. That is, to store a DATE value of "Nov. 24, 2006 10:32 pm 36 sec", the document appears as <TAG>2006-11-24 22:32:36</TAG>.

The Searchable SDATA sections support the following data types:

  • VARCHAR2

  • RAW

  • NUMBER

  • DATE

  • BINARY_FLOAT

  • BINARY_DOUBLE

  • TIMESTAMP

  • TIMESTAMP_WITH_TIMEZONE

Note:

The Searchable SDATA sections do not support CHAR datatype.

The BINARY_FLOAT datatype stores 32-bit floating point number.

The BINARY_DOUBLE datatype stores 64-bit floating point number.

The TIMESTAMP datatype is an extension of the DATE datatype. It stores year, month, and day values of date, as well as hour, minute, and second values of time. It also stores fractional seconds, which are not stored by the DATE datatype. The fractional seconds precision cannot be more than 9. The TIMESTAMP values must follow the ISO format. You can specify the TIMESTAMP literal in the YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MI:SS format. An example of the TIMESTAMP value is:

<TAG>1997-11-05T19:20:00</TAG>

The TIMESTAMP_WITH_TIMEZONE datatype is a variant of TIMESTAMP datatype that includes a time zone offset or a time zone region name in its value. The fractional seconds precision cannot be more than 9. The TIMESTAMP_WITH_TIMEZONE values must follow the ISO format. An example of the TIMESTAMP_WITH_TIMEZONE value is:

<TAG>1997-12-31T19:20:00-05:00</TAG>

Example

The following example demonstrates how to create a SDATA section:

create table tab(id number, info varchar2(100));

insert into tab values(1,'Hello World<fruit>apple</fruit><price>3</price>');                   
insert into tab values(2,'Hello World<fruit>orange</fruit><price>5</price>');

The preceding statements create a table named tab with two rows of data.

The following statements create a basic section group named sg, add SDATA sections to it and mark the SDATA to be searchable:

exec ctx_ddl.create_section_group('sg', 'basic_section_group');
exec ctx_ddl.add_sdata_section('sg','fruit','fruit','varchar2');
exec ctx_ddl.set_section_attribute('sg','fruit','optimized_for','search');
exec ctx_ddl.add_sdata_section('sg','price','price','number');
exec ctx_ddl.set_section_attribute('sg','price','optimized_for','search');

The following statement creates an index on sg:

create index idx on tab(info) indextype is ctxsys.context parameters ('section group sg');

The following statements query tab to demonstrate searchable SDATA:

Query 1

select id from tab where CONTAINS(info, 'SDATA(fruit = "apple")'); return id 1

Query 2

select id from tab where CONTAINS(info, 'Hello and SDATA(price > 4)'); return id 2

Limitations

  • If no SDATA tag occurs in a given document, then this is treated as an SDATA value of NULL.

  • Empty SDATA tags are treated as NULL values.

  • SDATA sections cannot be nested. Sections that are nested inside are ignored.

  • SDATA sections do not support skipjoins and printjoins characters.

8.11 ADD_SEC_GRP_ATTR_VAL

Adds a section group attribute value to the list of values of an already existing section group attribute.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.ADD_SEC_GRP_ATTR_VAL(
                      group_name      IN VARCHAR2,
                      attribute_name  IN VARCHAR2,   
                      attribute_value IN VARCHAR2
); 
group_name

Specify the section group name.

attribute_name

Specify the name of the section group attribute.

attribute_value

Specify the section group attribute value.

8.12 ADD_SPECIAL_SECTION

Adds a special section, either SENTENCE or PARAGRAPH, to a section group. This enables searching within sentences or paragraphs in documents with the WITHIN operator.

A special section in a document is a section which is not explicitly tagged like zone and field sections. The start and end of special sections are detected when the index is created. Oracle Text supports two such sections: paragraph and sentence.

The sentence and paragraph boundaries are determined by the lexer. For example, the lexer recognizes sentence and paragraph section boundaries as follows:

Table 8-1 Paragraph and Sentence Section Boundaries

Special Section Boundary

SENTENCE

WORD/PUNCT/WHITESPACE

SENTENCE

WORD/PUNCT/NEWLINE

PARAGRAPH

WORD/PUNCT/NEWLINE/WHITESPACE (indented paragraph)

PARAGRAPH

WORD/PUNCT/NEWLINE/NEWLINE (block paragraph)

The punctuation, whitespace, and newline characters are determined by your lexer settings and can be changed.

If the lexer cannot recognize the boundaries, no sentence or paragraph sections are indexed.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.ADD_SPECIAL_SECTION(
                 group_name    IN VARCHAR2, 
                 section_name  IN VARCHAR2
);
group_name

Specify the name of the section group.

section_name

Specify SENTENCE or PARAGRAPH.

Example

The following example enables searching within sentences within HTML documents:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_section_group('htmgroup', 'HTML_SECTION_GROUP');
ctx_ddl.add_special_section('htmgroup', 'SENTENCE');
end;

Add zone sections to the group to enable zone searching in addition to sentence searching. The following example adds the zone section Headline to the section group htmgroup:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_section_group('htmgroup', 'HTML_SECTION_GROUP');
ctx_ddl.add_special_section('htmgroup', 'SENTENCE');
ctx_ddl.add_zone_section('htmgroup', 'Headline', 'H1');
end;

If you are only interested in sentence or paragraph searching within documents and not interested in defining zone or field sections, then use the NULL_SECTION_GROUP as follows:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_section_group('nullgroup', 'NULL_SECTION_GROUP');
ctx_ddl.add_special_section('nullgroup', 'SENTENCE');
end;

8.13 ADD_STOPCLASS

Adds a stopclass to a stoplist. A stopclass is a class of tokens that is not to be indexed. A stoplist cannot have more than 250 stopclasses with stoppatterns. This does not include the NUMBERS stopclass. When indexing with Stop Patterns, the recommended memory setting is at least 500 MB to 1 GB to optimize the performance of indexing.

English is the only language supported for stopclasses.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.ADD_STOPCLASS(
  stoplist_name         IN   VARCHAR2,
  stopclass             IN   VARCHAR2,
  stoppattern           IN   VARCHAR2 default NULL
);
stoplist_name

Specify the name of the stoplist.

stopclass

Specify the stopclass to be added to stoplist_name. It can be either the NUMBERS stopclass or else it is considered as the pattern stopclass.

NUMBERS includes tokens that follow the number pattern: digits, numgroup, and numjoin only. Therefore, 123ABC is not a number, nor is A123. These are labeled as MIXED. $123 is not a number (this token is not common in a text index because non-alphanumerics become whitespace by default). In the United States, 123.45 is a number, but 123.456.789 is not; in Europe, where numgroup may be '.', the reverse is true.

If NUMBERS is not specified for the stopclass parameter, then it is treated as a pattern stopclass, and you can provide any name to the stopclass parameter. If you specify stopclass as a pattern class, then you need to specify the pattern in the stoppattern parameter. The pattern includes any string pattern that may contain numbers and dates as well.

The maximum number of stopwords, stopthemes, and stopclasses you can add to a stoplist is 4095.

stoppattern

Specify the stop pattern to add to the stoplist. If the stopclass is specified as a pattern class, then the stop pattern must be specified. You can use the Oracle Regular Expression to specify the stop pattern.

Call the ADD_STOPCLASS procedure multiple times to add multiple stop patterns to a stoplist. You must specify different stopclass names for adding multiple stop patterns to a stoplist.

A stop pattern is not case-sensitive by default, but acts as case-sensitive when the MIXED_CASE lexer preference is enabled. The stop pattern can have the maximum length of 512 characters. When indexing with Stop Patterns, the recommended memory setting is at least 500 MB to 1 GB to optimize the performance of indexing.

See Also:

Oracle Database Development Guide for more information about the syntax of the Oracle Regular Expression.

Example

The following example adds a stopclass of NUMBERS to the stoplist mystoplist:

begin
ctx_ddl.add_stopclass('mystoplist', 'NUMBERS');
end;

The following example adds the pattern stopclass of SSN to the stoplist mystoplist:

begin
ctx_ddl.add_stopclass('mystoplist', 'SSN', '\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}');
end;

In this example, the stopclass SSN matches all the tokens of the form <3 digit number>-<2 digit number>-<4 digit number>, example, 234-11-8902.

8.14 ADD_STOP_SECTION

Adds a stop section to an automatic section group. Adding a stop section causes the automatic section indexing operation to ignore the specified section in XML documents.

Note:

Adding a stop section causes no section information to be created in the index. However, the text within a stop section is always searchable.

Adding a stop section is useful when your documents contain many low information tags. Adding stop sections also improves indexing performance with the automatic section group.

The number of stop sections you can add is unlimited.

Stop sections do not have section names and hence are not recorded in the section views.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.ADD_STOP_SECTION(
                 section_group IN VARCHAR2, 
                 tag           IN VARCHAR2
);
section_group

Specify the name of the automatic section group. If you do not specify an automatic section group, then this procedure returns an error.

tag

Specify the tag to ignore during indexing. This parameter is case-sensitive. Defining a stop tag as such also stops the tag's attribute sections, if any.

Qualify the tag with document type in the form (doctype)tag. For example, if you wanted to make the <fluff> tag a stop section only within the mydoc document type, specify (mydoc)fluff for tag.

Example

Defining Stop Sections

The following example adds a stop section identified by the tag <fluff> to the automatic section group myauto:

begin
ctx_ddl.add_stop_section('myauto', 'fluff');
end;

This example also stops any attribute sections contained within <fluff>. For example, if a document contained:

<fluff type="computer">

Then the preceding example also stops the attribute section fluff@type.

Doctype Sensitive Stop Sections

The following example creates a stop section for the tag <fluff> only in documents that have a root element of mydoc:

begin
ctx_ddl.add_stop_section('myauto', '(mydoc)fluff');
end;

Related Topics

"ALTER INDEX "

"CREATE_SECTION_GROUP "

8.15 ADD_STOPTHEME

Adds a single stoptheme to a stoplist. A stoptheme is a theme that is not to be indexed.

In English, query on indexed themes using the ABOUT operator.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.ADD_STOPTHEME(
  stoplist_name     IN   VARCHAR2,
  stoptheme         IN   VARCHAR2
);
stoplist_name

Specify the name of the stoplist.

stoptheme

Specify the stoptheme to be added to stoplist_name. The system normalizes the stoptheme you enter using the knowledge base. If the normalized theme is more than one theme, then the system does not process your stoptheme. For this reason, Oracle recommends that you submit single stopthemes.

The maximum number of stopwords, stopthemes, and stopclasses you can add to a stoplist is 4095.

Example

The following example adds the stoptheme banking to the stoplist mystop:

begin
ctx_ddl.add_stoptheme('mystop', 'banking');
end;

8.16 ADD_STOPWORD

Use this procedure to add a single stopword to a stoplist.

To create a list of stopwords, you must call this procedure once for each word.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.ADD_STOPWORD(
        stoplist_name       IN VARCHAR2,
        stopword            IN VARCHAR2,
        language            IN VARCHAR2 default NULL,
        language_dependent  IN BOOLEAN default TRUE
);
stoplist_name

Specify the name of the stoplist.

stopword

Specify the stopword to be added.

Language-specific stopwords must be unique across the other stopwords specific to the language. For example, it is valid to have a German die and an English die in the same stoplist.

The maximum number of stopwords, stopthemes, and stopclasses you can add to a stoplist is 4095.

language

Specify the language of stopword when the stoplist you specify with stoplist_name is of type MULTI_STOPLIST. You must specify the globalization support name or abbreviation of an Oracle Text-supported language.

To make a stopword active in multiple languages, specify ALL for this parameter. For example, defining ALL stopwords is useful when you have international documents that contain English fragments that need to be stopped in any language.

An ALL stopword is active in all languages. If you use the multi-lexer, the language-specific lexing of the stopword occurs, just as if it had been added multiple times in multiple specific languages.

Otherwise, specify NULL.

language_dependent

Set this parameter to FALSE to indicate that any user-defined string can be specified for the language parameter.

Example

Single Language Stoplist

The following example adds the stopwords because, notwithstanding, nonetheless, and therefore to the stoplist mystop:

begin
ctx_ddl.add_stopword('mystop', 'because');
ctx_ddl.add_stopword('mystop', 'notwithstanding');
ctx_ddl.add_stopword('mystop', 'nonetheless');
ctx_ddl.add_stopword('mystop', 'therefore');
end;

Multi-Language Stoplist

The following example adds the German word die to a multi-language stoplist:

begin
ctx_ddl.add_stopword('mystop', 'Die','german');
end;

Adding An ALL Stopword

The following adds the word the as an ALL stopword to the multi-language stoplist globallist:

begin
ctx_ddl.add_stopword('globallist','the','ALL');
end;

Notes

  • Add stopwords after you create the index with ALTER INDEX.

  • Stoplists do not affect string-value SDATA sections, that is, if a stopword is present within an SDATA section, then the token will still be indexed and can be queried using the SDATA operator.

8.17 ADD_SUB_LEXER

Adds a sub-lexer to a multi-lexer preference. A sub-lexer identifies a language in a multi-lexer (multi-language) preference. Use a multi-lexer preference when you want to index more than one language.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.ADD_SUB_LEXER(
             lexer_name          IN VARCHAR2,
             language            IN VARCHAR2,
             sub_lexer           IN VARCHAR2,
             alt_value           IN VARCHAR2 default NULL,
             language_dependent  IN BOOLEAN default TRUE
);
lexer_name

Specify the name of the multi-lexer preference.

language

Specify the globalization support language name or abbreviation of the sub-lexer. For example, specify JAPANESE or JA for Japanese.

The sub-lexer you specify with sub_lexer is used when the language column has a value case-insensitive equal to the globalization support name of abbreviation of language.

Specify DEFAULT to assign a default sub-lexer to use when the value of the language column in the base table is null, invalid, or unmapped to a sub-lexer. The DEFAULT lexer is also used to parse stopwords.

If a sub-lexer definition for language already exists, then it is replaced by this call.

sub_lexer

Specify the name of the sub-lexer to use for this language.

alt_value

Optionally specify an alternate value for language.

If you specify DEFAULT for language, then you cannot specify an alt_value.

The alt_value is limited to 30 bytes and cannot be a globalization support language name, abbreviation, or DEFAULT.

language_dependent

Set this parameter to FALSE to indicate that any user-defined string can be specified for the language parameter. If set to FALSE, then the lexing applied to the search expression will not be dependent on the query language. The FALSE option can only be used when a BASIC_SECTION_GROUP is in use for the index.

Example

This example shows how to create a multi-language text table and how to set up the multi-lexer to index the table.

Create the multi-language table with a primary key, a text column, and a language column as follows:

create table globaldoc (
   doc_id number primary key,
   lang varchar2(3),
   text clob
);

Assume that the table holds mostly English documents, with an occasional German or Japanese document. To handle the three languages, you must create three sub-lexers: one for English, one for German, and one for Japanese as follows:

ctx_ddl.create_preference('english_lexer','basic_lexer');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('english_lexer','index_themes','yes');
ctx_ddl.set_attribtue('english_lexer','theme_language','english');

ctx_ddl.create_preference('german_lexer','basic_lexer');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('german_lexer','composite','german');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('german_lexer','mixed_case','yes');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('german_lexer','alternate_spelling','german');

ctx_ddl.create_preference('japanese_lexer','japanese_vgram_lexer');

Create the multi-lexer preference:

ctx_ddl.create_preference('global_lexer', 'multi_lexer');

Because the stored documents are mostly English, make the English lexer the default:

ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('global_lexer','default','english_lexer');

Add the German and Japanese lexers in their respective languages. Also assume that the language column is expressed in ISO 639-2, so add those as alternative values.

ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('global_lexer','german','german_lexer','ger');
ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('global_lexer','japanese','japanese_lexer','jpn');

Create the index globalx, specifying the multi-lexer preference and the language column in the parameters string as follows:

create index globalx on globaldoc(text) indextype is ctxsys.context
parameters ('lexer global_lexer language column lang');

You can specify a user-defined string for the language paramater as follows:

ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('global_lexer','mysymbol','german_lexer','my_alt_symbol', language_dependent => FALSE);

Restrictions

The following restrictions apply to using CTX_DDL.ADD_SUB_LEXER:

  • The invoking user must be the owner of the multi-lexer or CTXSYS.

  • The lexer_name parameter must name a preference which is a multi-lexer lexer.

  • A lexer for default must be defined before the multi-lexer can be used in an index.

  • The sub-lexer preference owner must be the same as multi-lexer preference owner.

  • The sub-lexer preference must not be a multi-lexer lexer.

  • A sub-lexer preference cannot be dropped while it is being used in a multi-lexer preference.

  • CTX_DDL.ADD_SUB_LEXER records only a reference. The sub-lexer values are copied at create index time to index value storage.

8.18 ADD_ZONE_SECTION

Creates a zone section and adds the section to an existing section group. This enables zone section searching with the WITHIN operator.

Zone sections are sections delimited by start and end tags. The <B> and </B> tags in HTML, for instance, marks a range of words which are to be rendered in boldface.

Zone sections can be nested within one another, can overlap, and can occur more than once in a document.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.ADD_ZONE_SECTION(
  group_name     IN    VARCHAR2,
  section_name   IN    VARCHAR2,
  tag            IN    VARCHAR2
);
group_name

Specify the name of the section group to which section_name is added.

section_name

Specify the name of the section to add to the group_name. Use this name to identify the section in WITHIN queries. Avoid using names that contain non-alphanumeric characters such as _, because most of these characters are special must be escaped in queries. Section names are case-insensitive.

Within the same group, zone section names and field section names cannot be the same. The terms Paragraph and Sentence are reserved for special sections.

Section names need not be unique across tags. You can assign the same section name to more than one tag, making details transparent to searches.

tag

Specify the pattern which marks the start of a section. For example, if <H1> is the HTML tag, specify H1 for tag. The start tag you specify must be unique within a section group.

Oracle Text knows what the end tags look like from the group_type parameter you specify when you create the section group.

If group_name is an HTML_SECTION_GROUP, you can create zone sections for the META tag's NAME/CONTENT attribute pairs. To do so, specify tag as meta@namevalue where namevalue is the value of the NAME attribute whose CONTENT attributes are to be indexed as a section. Refer to the example.

If group_name is an XML_SECTION_GROUP, you can optionally qualify tag with a document type (root element) in the form (doctype)tag. Doing so makes section_name sensitive to the XML document type declaration. Refer to the example.

Examples

Creating HTML Sections

The following example defines a section group called htmgroup of type HTML_SECTION_GROUP. It then creates a zone section in htmgroup called headline identified by the <H1> tag:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_section_group('htmgroup', 'HTML_SECTION_GROUP');
ctx_ddl.add_zone_section('htmgroup', 'heading', 'H1');
end;

After indexing with section group htmgroup, query within the heading section by issuing a query as follows:

'Oracle WITHIN heading'

Creating Sections for <META NAME> Tags

You can create zone sections for HTML META tags when you use the HTML_SECTION_GROUP.

Consider an HTML document that has a META tag as follows:

<META NAME="author" CONTENT="ken">

To create a zone section that indexes all CONTENT attributes for the META tag whose NAME value is author:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_section_group('htmgroup', 'HTML_SECTION_GROUP');
ctx_ddl.add_zone_section('htmgroup', 'author', 'meta@author');
end

After indexing with section group htmgroup, query the document as follows:

'ken WITHIN author'

Creating Document Type Sensitive Sections (XML Documents Only)

You have an XML document set that contains the <book> tag declared for different document types (DTDs). You want to create a distinct book section for each document type.

Assume that myDTDname is declared as an XML document type as follows:

<!DOCTYPE myDTDname>
<myDTDname>
 ...

(Note: the DOCTYPE must match the top-level tag.)

Within myDTDname, the element <book> is declared. For this tag, create a section named mybooksec that is sensitive to the tag's document type as follows:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_section_group('myxmlgroup', 'XML_SECTION_GROUP');
ctx_ddl.add_zone_section('myxmlgroup', 'mybooksec', '(myDTDname)book');
end;

Notes

Repeated Sections

Zone sections can repeat. Each occurrence is treated as a separate section. For example, if <H1> denotes a heading section, they can repeat in the same documents as follows:

<H1> The Brown Fox </H1>

<H1> The Gray Wolf </H1>

Assuming that these zone sections are named Heading, the query Brown WITHIN Heading returns this document. However, a query of (Brown and Gray) WITHIN Heading does not.

Overlapping Sections

Zone sections can overlap each other. For example, if <B> and <I> denote two different zone sections, they can overlap in document as follows:

plain <B> bold <I> bold and italic </B> only italic </I>  plain

Nested Sections

Zone sections can nest, including themselves as follows:

<TD> <TABLE><TD>nested cell</TD></TABLE></TD>

Using the WITHIN operator, you can write queries to search for text in sections within sections. For example, assume the BOOK1, BOOK2, and AUTHOR zone sections occur as follows in documents doc1 and doc2:

doc1:

<book1> <author>Scott Tiger</author> This is a cool book to read.</book1>

doc2:

<book2> <author>Scott Tiger</author> This is a great book to read.</book2>

Consider the nested query:

'(Scott within author) within book1'

This query returns only doc1.

8.19 COPY_POLICY

Creates a new policy from an existing policy or index.

Syntax

ctx_ddl.copy_policy(
    source_policy       VARCHAR2,
    policy_name         VARCHAR2    );
source_policy

The name of the policy or index being copied.

policy_name

The name of the new policy copy.

The preference values are copied from the source_policy. Both the source policy or index and the new policy must be owned by the same database user.

8.20 CREATE_INDEX_SET

Creates an index set for CTXCAT index types.

Name this index set in the parameter clause of CREATE INDEX when you create a CTXCAT index.

Note:

The Oracle Text indextype CTXCAT is deprecated with Oracle Database 23ai. The indextype itself, and it's operator CTXCAT, can be removed in a future release.

CTXCAT was introduced when indexes were typically a few megabytes in size. Modern, large indexes, can be difficult to manage with CTXCAT. The addition of index sets to CTXCAT can be achieved more effectively by the use of FILTER BY and ORDER BY columns, or SDATA, or both, in the CONTEXT indextype. CTXCAT is therefore rarely an appropriate choice. Oracle recommends that you choose the more efficient CONTEXT indextype.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.CREATE_INDEX_SET(set_name in varchar2);
set_name

Specify the name of the index set. Name this index set in the parameter clause of CREATE INDEX when you create a CTXCAT index.

8.21 CREATE_POLICY

Creates a policy to use with the CTX_DOC.POLICY_* procedures, certain Oracle Data Mining procedures, and the in-memory Text index.

Syntax

PROCEDURE CTX_DDL.CREATE_POLICY(
         policy_name     IN VARCHAR2,
         filter          IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
         section_group   IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
         lexer           IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
         stoplist        IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
         wordlist        IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
         datastore       IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL
);
policy_name

Specify the name for the new policy. Policy names and Text indexes share the same namespace.

filter

Specify the filter preference to use.

section_group

Specify the section group to use. You can specify any section group that is supported by CONTEXT index.

lexer

Specify the lexer preference to use. Your INDEX_THEMES attribute must be disabled.

stoplist

Specify the stoplist preference to use.

wordlist

Specify the wordlist preference to use.

datastore

Specify the datastore preference to use for the in-memory Text index.

Note:

The datastore parameter is only supported for the in-memory Text index.

Examples

Create a lexer preference named mylex.

begin 
   ctx_ddl.create_preference('mylex', 'BASIC_LEXER'); 
   ctx_ddl.set_attribute('mylex', 'printjoins', '_-'); 
end;

Create a stoplist preference named mystop.

begin 
   ctx_ddl.create_stoplist('mystop', 'BASIC_STOPLIST'); 
   ctx_ddl.add_stopword('mystop', 'because');
   ctx_ddl.add_stopword('mystop', 'nonetheless');
   ctx_ddl.add_stopword('mystop', 'therefore');
end;

Create a wordlist preference named mywordlist.

begin 
   ctx_ddl.create_preference('mywordlist', 'BASIC_WORDLIST');
end;

Create a datastore preference named my_file_datastore.

begin 
   create or replace directory wdirectory as '/path1/path2';
   GRANT read ON DIRECTORY WDIRECTORY TO user;
   EXEC ctx_ddl.create_preference('my_file_datastore', 'DIRECTORY_DATASTORE'); 
   EXEC ctx_ddl.set_attribute('my_file_datastore', 'DIRECTORY', 'WDIRECTORY');
end;

Create a policy named mypolicy.

exec ctx_ddl.create_policy(
   'mypolicy',
    NULL,
    NULL,
   'mylex',
   'mystop',
   'mywordlist',
   'my_file_datastore'
);

or

exec ctx_ddl.create_policy(
   policy_name => 'mypolicy', 
   lexer => 'mylex',
   stoplist => 'mystop',
   wordlist => 'mywordlist',
   datastore => 'my_file_datastore'
);

Use ALTER TABLE to apply your defined policy to a column for in-memory search. Then enter your query statement, using the CONTAINS operator in the WHERE clause:

ALTER TABLE my_tab INMEMORY TEXT(my_txt_col using 'mypolicy');

SELECT id from my_tab WHERE CONTAINS(my_txt_col, 'Washington')>0;

Update the policy with the following:

exec ctx_ddl.update_policy(
   policy_name => 'mypolicy',
   lexer => 'my_new_lex'
);

Drop the policy with the following:

exec ctx_ddl.drop_policy(policy_name => 'mypolicy');

8.22 CREATE_PREFERENCE

Creates a preference in the Text data dictionary.

Specify preferences in the parameter string of CREATE INDEX or ALTER INDEX .

Caution:

CTX_DDL.CREATE_PREFERENCE does not respect the current schema as set by ALTER SESSION SET current_schema. Therefore, if you need to create or delete a preference owned by another user, then you must explicitly state this, and you must have the CREATE ANY TABLE system privilege.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.CREATE_PREFERENCE(preference_name  in varchar2, 
                          object_name      in varchar2); 
preference_name

Specify the name of the preference to be created.

object_name

Specify the name of the preference type.

See Also:

For a complete list of preference types and their associated attributes, see Oracle Text Indexing Elements

Examples

Creating Text-only Index

The following example creates a lexer preference that specifies a text-only index. It does so by creating a BASIC_LEXER preference called my_lexer with CTX_DDL.CREATE_PREFERENCE. It then calls CTX_DDL.SET_ATTRIBUTE twice, first specifying YES for the INDEX_TEXT attribute, then specifying NO for the INDEX_THEMES attribute.

begin
ctx_ddl.create_preference('my_lexer', 'BASIC_LEXER');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('my_lexer', 'INDEX_TEXT', 'YES');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('my_lexer', 'INDEX_THEMES', 'NO');
end;

Specifying File Data Storage

The following example creates a data storage preference called mypref that tells the system that the files to be indexed are stored in an Oracle directory object. The example then uses CTX_DDL.SET_ATTRIBUTE to set the DIRECTORY attribute to the directory /docs.

begin
ctx_ddl.create_preference('mypref', 'DIRECTORY_DATASTORE');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('mypref', 'DIRECTORY', '/docs'); 
end;

See Also:

For more information about data storage, see "Datastore Types "

Creating Primary/Detail Relationship

Use CTX_DDL.CREATE_PREFERENCE to create a preference with DETAIL_DATASTORE. Use CTX_DDL.SET_ATTRIBUTE to set the attributes for this preference. The following example shows how this is done:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_preference('my_detail_pref', 'DETAIL_DATASTORE');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('my_detail_pref', 'binary', 'true');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('my_detail_pref', 'detail_table', 'my_detail');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('my_detail_pref', 'detail_key', 'article_id');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('my_detail_pref', 'detail_lineno', 'seq');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('my_detail_pref', 'detail_text', 'text');
end;

See Also:

For more information about primary/detail, see "DETAIL_DATASTORE "

Specifying Storage Attributes

The following examples specify that the index tables are to be created in the foo tablespace with an initial extent of 1K:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_preference('mystore', 'BASIC_STORAGE');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('mystore', 'I_TABLE_CLAUSE',
                        'tablespace foo storage (initial 1K)'); 
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('mystore', 'K_TABLE_CLAUSE',
                        'tablespace foo storage (initial 1K)'); 
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('mystore', 'R_TABLE_CLAUSE',
                        'tablespace foo storage (initial 1K)'); 
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('mystore', 'S_TABLE_CLAUSE',
                        'tablespace foo storage (initial 1K)'); 
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('mystore', 'N_TABLE_CLAUSE',
                        'tablespace foo storage (initial 1K)'); 
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('mystore', 'I_INDEX_CLAUSE',
                        'tablespace foo storage (initial 1K)'); 
end;

Note:

If S_TABLE_CLAUSE is specified for a storage preference in an index without SDATA, then it has no effect on the index, and the index creation will still succeed.

See Also:

Storage Types

Creating Preferences with No Attributes

When you create preferences with types that have no attributes, you need only create the preference, as in the following example which sets the filter to the NULL_FILTER:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_preference('my_null_filter', 'NULL_FILTER');
end;

Specifying BIGRAM Mode for Japanese VGRAM Lexer

The following example creates a Japanese VGRAM lexer preference that specifies the BIGRAM mode of operation for the Japanese queries:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_preference('jp_lexer','JAPANESE_VGRAM_LEXER');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('jp_lexer','BIGRAM','TRUE');
end;

/* create the index */
create index jp_idx on jp_doc(text) indextype is ctxsys.context
  parameters('lexer jp_lexer');

8.23 CREATE_SECTION_GROUP

Creates a section group for defining sections in a text column.

When you create a section group, you can add to it zone, field, or special sections with ADD_ZONE_SECTION , ADD_FIELD_SECTION, ADD_MDATA_SECTION, or ADD_SPECIAL_SECTION .

You also use CREATE_SECTION_GROUP with CTX_DDL.SET_SEC_GRP_ATTR to set xml_enable to create an Oracle XML Search Index.

When you index, name the section group in the parameter string of CREATE INDEX or ALTER INDEX .

After indexing, query within your defined sections with the WITHIN operator.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.CREATE_SECTION_GROUP(
  group_name     in    varchar2,
  group_type     in    varchar2
);
group_name

Specify the section group name to create as section_group_name. This parameter must be unique within an owner.

group_type

Specify section group type. The group_type parameter can be one of the following:

Section Group Preference Description

NULL_SECTION_GROUP

Use this group type when you define no sections or when you define only SENTENCE or PARAGRAPH sections. This is the default.

BASIC_SECTION_GROUP

Use this group type for defining sections where the start and end tags are of the form <A> and </A>.

Note: This group type does not support input such as unbalanced parentheses, comments tags, and attributes. Use HTML_SECTION_GROUP for this type of input.

HTML_SECTION_GROUP

Use this group type for indexing HTML documents and for defining sections in HTML documents.

JSON_SECTION_GROUP

Use this group to create a JSON enabled context index. The JSON ENABLE attribute cannot be used with XML ENABLE. A section group can only be marked as JSON ENABLE. If it is already marked with XML ENABLE, then the path section group cannot be used for JSON ENABLE and vice versa.

XML_SECTION_GROUP

Use this group type for indexing XML documents and for defining sections in XML documents.

AUTO_SECTION_GROUP

Use this group type to automatically create a zone section for each start-tag/end-tag pair in an XML document. The section names derived from XML tags are case sensitive as in XML.

Attribute sections are created automatically for XML tags that have attributes. Attribute sections are named in the form attribute@tag.

Stop sections, empty tags, processing instructions, and comments are not indexed.

The following limitations apply to automatic section groups:

  • You cannot add zone, field, or special sections to an automatic section group.

  • Automatic sectioning does not index XML document types (root elements.) However, you can define stop sections with document type.

  • The length of the indexed tags, including prefix and namespace, cannot exceed 64 bytes. Tags longer than this are not indexed.

PATH_SECTION_GROUP

Use this group type to index XML documents. Behaves like the AUTO_SECTION_GROUP.

The difference is that with this section group you can do path searching with the INPATH and HASPATH operators. Queries are also case-sensitive for tag and attribute names.

NEWS_SECTION_GROUP

Use this group for defining sections in newsgroup formatted documents according to RFC 1036.

Note:

Starting with Oracle Database 18c, use of NEWS_SECTION_GROUP is deprecated in Oracle Text. Use external processing instead.

If you want to index USENET posts, then preprocess the posts to use BASIC_SECTION_GROUP or HTML_SECTION_GROUP within Oracle Text. USENET is rarely used commercially.

Examples

The following command creates a section group called htmgroup with the HTML group type.

begin
ctx_ddl.create_section_group('htmgroup', 'HTML_SECTION_GROUP');
end;

The following command creates a section group called auto with the AUTO_SECTION_GROUP group type to be used to automatically index tags in XML documents.

begin
ctx_ddl.create_section_group('auto', 'AUTO_SECTION_GROUP');
end;

The following example creates an Oracle XML Search index:

exec CTX_DDL.CREATE_SECTION_GROUP('secgroup','PATH_SECTION_GROUP');
exec CTX_DDL.SET_SEC_GRP_ATTR('secgroup','xml_enable','t');
CREATE INDEX po_ctx_idx on T(X) indextype is ctxsys.context
parameters ('section group SECGROUP');

8.24 CREATE_SHADOW_INDEX

Creates index metadata (or policy) for the specified index. If the index is not partitioned, then it also creates the index tables. This procedure is only supported in Enterprise Edition of Oracle Database.

The following changes are not supported:

  • Transition from non-composite domain index to composite, or changing the composite domain index columns.

  • Rebuild indexes that have partitioned index tables, for example, $I, $P, $K.

Note:

  • For a partitioned index, you must first call this procedure to create the shadow index metadata. This procedure will not create index tables. It has no effect on query, DML, sync, or optimize operations.

  • The CREATE_SHADOW_INDEX and RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE procedures do not support section group with the XML_ENABLE attribute on CONTEXT indexes. Doing so results in the "DRG-10521: Operation not supported with XML_ENABLE on a CONTEXT Index" error.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.CREATE_SHADOW_INDEX(
  idx_name          IN VARCHAR2,
  parameter_string  IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
  parallel_degree   IN NUMBER DEFAULT 1
);
idx_name

The name of a valid CONTEXT indextype.

parameter_string

For nonpartitioned index, the same string as in ALTER INDEX. For partitioned index, the same string as in ALTER INDEX PARAMETER.

parallel_degree

Reserved for future use. Specify the degree of parallelism. Parallel operation is not currently supported.

Example

Example 8-1 Scheduled Global Index RECREATE (Incremental Rebuild)

In this example, you have the finest control over each stage of RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE. Since SYNC_INDEX can take a time limit, you can limit SYNC_INDEX during non-business hours and incrementally recreate the index.

/* create lexer and original index */
exec ctx_ddl.create_preference('us_lexer','basic_lexer');
create index idx on tbl(text) indextype is ctxsys.context
  parameters('lexer us_lexer');
 
/* create a new lexer */
begin
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('e_lexer','basic_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.set_attribute('e_lexer','base_letter','yes');
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('m_lexer','multi_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('m_lexer','default','us_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('m_lexer','e','e_lexer');
end;
/
 
/* add new language column to the table for multi-lexer */
alter table tbl add(lang varchar2(10) default 'us');
 
/* create shadow index */
exec ctx_ddl.create_shadow_index('idx',
  'replace lexer m_lexer language column lang NOPOPULATE');
 
declare
  idxid integer;
begin
  /* figure out shadow index name */
  select idx_id into idxid from ctx_user_indexes
     where idx_name ='IDX';
  /* populate pending */
  ctx_ddl.populate_pending('RIO$'||idxid);
  /* time limited sync */
  ctx_ddl.sync_index(idx_name =>'RIO$'||idxid,
                     maxtime =>480);
  /* more sync until no pending rows for the shadow index */
end;
/* swap in the shadow index */
exec ctx_ddl.exchange_shadow_index('idx');

Notes

  • The index name for the shadow index is RIO$index_id. By default, it also populates index tables for nonpartitioned indexes, unless NOPOPULATE is specified in CREATE INDEX or in ALTER INDEX. For a local partitioned index, it only creates index metadata without creating the index tables for each partition. Each index can have only one shadow index.

  • When building a nonpartitioned index online, you can first call this procedure to create index metadata and index tables. If you specify POPULATE, then this procedure populates the index, but does not do swapping. You can schedule the swapping at a later, preferred time.

    If you specify NOPOPULATE, it only creates metadata for the index tables, but does not populate them. You must perform POPULATE_PENDING (CTX_DDL.POPULATE_PENDING) to populate the pending queues after running this procedure, and then sync the indexes. This is referred to as incremental re-create.

    Queries are all processed normally when this procedure is running.

  • If POPULATE is specified, then DML is blocked for a very short time at the beginning of populate, after which all further DML is logged into an online pending queue and processed later.

  • In case of NOPOPULATE shadow indexes, ensure that you execute the POPULATE_PENDING procedure before calling a DML operation. If you call a DML operation before executing the POPULATE_PENDING procedure, then the same tokens appear twice in the $I index table.

  • Sync with CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX runs normally on the index. OPTIMIZE_INDEX runs without doing anything, but does not return an error.

  • When you change the SYNC type for a shadow index, the EXCHANGE_SHADOW_INDEX procedure swaps the main index with the new SYNC type. However, the shadow index continues to use MANUAL synchronization as the SYNC type. This feature enables you to control when you want to populate or exchange the shadow index.

8.25 CREATE_STOPLIST

Use this procedure to create a new, empty stoplist. Stoplists can contain words or themes that are not to be indexed.

You can also create multi-language stoplists to hold language-specific stopwords. A multi-language stoplist is useful when you index a table that contains documents in different languages, such as English, German, and Japanese. When you do so, the text table must contain a language column.

Add either stopwords, stopclasses, or stopthemes to a stoplist using ADD_STOPWORD, ADD_STOPCLASS, or ADD_STOPTHEME. Specify a stoplist in the parameter string of CREATE INDEX or ALTER INDEX to override the default stoplist CTXSYS.DEFAULT_STOPLIST.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.CREATE_STOPLIST(
stoplist_name IN VARCHAR2,
stoplist_type IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT 'BASIC_STOPLIST');
stoplist_name

Specify the name of the stoplist to be created.

stoplist_type

Specify BASIC_STOPLIST to create a stoplist for a single language. This is the default.

Specify MULTI_STOPLIST to create a stoplist with language-specific stopwords.

At indexing time, the language column of each document is examined, and only the stopwords for that language are eliminated. At query time, the session language setting determines the active stopwords, like it determines the active lexer when using the multi-lexer.

Note:

When indexing a multi-language table with a multi-language stoplist, the table must have a language column.

Examples

Example 8-2 Single Language Stoplist

The following example creates a stoplist called mystop:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_stoplist('mystop', 'BASIC_STOPLIST');
end;

Example 8-3 Multi-Language Stoplist

The following example creates a multi-language stoplist called multistop and then adds tow language-specific stopwords:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_stoplist('multistop', 'MULTI_STOPLIST');
ctx_ddl.add_stopword('mystop', 'Die','german');
ctx_ddl.add_stopword('mystop', 'Or','english');
end;

8.26 DROP_INDEX_SET

Drops a CTXCAT index set created with CTX_DDL.CREATE_INDEX_SET.

Note:

The Oracle Text indextype CTXCAT is deprecated with Oracle Database 23ai. The indextype itself, and it's operator CTXCAT, can be removed in a future release.

CTXCAT was introduced when indexes were typically a few megabytes in size. Modern, large indexes, can be difficult to manage with CTXCAT. The addition of index sets to CTXCAT can be achieved more effectively by the use of FILTER BY and ORDER BY columns, or SDATA, or both, in the CONTEXT indextype. CTXCAT is therefore rarely an appropriate choice. Oracle recommends that you choose the more efficient CONTEXT indextype.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.DROP_INDEX_SET(
     set_name    IN VARCHAR2
);
set_name

Specify the name of the index set to drop.

Dropping an index set drops all of the sub-indexes it contains.

Related Topics

8.27 DROP_POLICY

Drops a policy created with CTX_DDL.CREATE_POLICY.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.DROP_POLICY(
     policy_name    IN VARCHAR2
);
policy_name

Specify the name of the policy to drop.

8.28 DROP_PREFERENCE

The DROP_PREFERENCE procedure deletes the specified preference from the Text data dictionary. Dropping a preference does not affect indexes that have already been created using that preference.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.DROP_PREFERENCE(
     preference_name    IN VARCHAR2
);
preference_name

Specify the name of the preference to be dropped.

Example

The following example drops the preference my_lexer.

begin
ctx_ddl.drop_preference('my_lexer');
end;

Related Topics

CTX_DDL.CREATE_PREFERENCE

8.29 DROP_SECTION_GROUP

The DROP_SECTION_GROUP procedure deletes the specified section group, as well as all the sections in the group, from the Text data dictionary.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.DROP_SECTION_GROUP(
     group_name     IN VARCHAR2
);
group_name

Specify the name of the section group to delete.

Example

The following example drops the section group htmgroup and all its sections:

begin
ctx_ddl.drop_section_group('htmgroup');
end;

8.30 DROP_SHADOW_INDEX

Drops a shadow index for the specified index. When you drop a shadow index, if it is partitioned, then its metadata and the metadata of all this shadow index's partitions are dropped. This procedure also drops all the shadow index tables and cleans up any online pending queue.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.DROP_SHADOW_INDEX(
     idx_name       in VARCHAR2
);
idx_name

The name of a valid CONTEXT indextype.

Example

The following example drops the shadow index myshadowidx:

begin
ctx_ddl.drop_shadow_index('myshadowidx');
end;

Related Topics

CTX_DDL.CREATE_SHADOW_INDEX

8.31 DROP_STOPLIST

Drops a stoplist from the Text data dictionary. When you drop a stoplist, you must re-create or rebuild the index for the change to take effect.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.DROP_STOPLIST(stoplist_name in varchar2);
stoplist_name

Specify the name of the stoplist.

Example

The following example drops the stoplist mystop:

begin
ctx_ddl.drop_stoplist('mystop');
end;

Related Topics

CTX_DDL.CREATE_STOPLIST

8.32 EXCHANGE_SHADOW_INDEX

This procedure swaps the index (or index partition) metadata and index (or index partition) data.

For nonpartitioned indexes, this procedure swaps both the metadata and the index data, and processes the online pending queue.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.EXCHANGE_SHADOW_INDEX(
     idx_name        IN VARCHAR2
     partition_name  IN VARCHAR2 default NULL
);
idx_name

Specify the name of the CONTEXT indextype.

partition_name

Specify the name of the shadow index partition. May also be NULL.

Example

Example 8-4 Global Index RECREATE with Scheduled Swap

This example demonstrates running CTX_DDL.EXCHANGE_SHADOW_INDEX during non-business hours when query failures and DML blocking can be tolerated.

/* create lexer and original index */
exec ctx_ddl.create_preference('us_lexer','basic_lexer');
create index idx on tbl(text) indextype is ctxsys.context
  parameters('lexer us_lexer');
 
/* create a new lexer */
begin
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('e_lexer','basic_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.set_attribute('e_lexer','base_letter','yes');
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('m_lexer','multi_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('m_lexer','default','us_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('m_lexer','e','e_lexer');
end;
/
 
/* add new language column to the table for multi-lexer */
alter table tbl add(lang varchar2(10) default 'us');
 
/* recreate index online with the new multip-lexer */
exec ctx_ddl.create_shadow_index('idx',
  'replace lexer m_lexer language column lang');
exec ctx_ddl.exchange_shadow_index('idx');

Notes

  • Using EXCHANGE_SHADOW_INDEX with Nonpartitioned Indexes:

    For nonpartitioned indexes, this procedure will swap both metadata and index data, and will process the online pending queue.

    Queries will return column not indexed errors when swapping metadata and index data, but queries are processed normally when processing online pending queue. The period of errors being raised should be short.

    If you specify POPULATE when you create the shadow index, and if many DML operations have been issued since the creation of the shadow index, then there could be a large pending queue. However, if you use incremental recreate, that is, specify NOPOPULATE when you create the shadow index, and you then populate the pending queue and sync, then the online pending queue is always empty no matter how many DML operations have occurred since CREATE_SHADOW_INDEX was issued.

    When this procedure is running, DML will first fail with an error about index being in in-progress status. After that DML could be blocked if there are rows in online pending queue that need to be reapplied.

    Note:

    When this procedure is running, DML statements will fail with an error that the index is in "in-progress status." If, when this error occurs, there are rows in the online pending queue that need to be reapplied, then the DML could be blocked and stop responding.

  • Using EXCHANGE_SHADOW_INDEX with Partitioned Indexes:

    For partitions that are recreated with NOSWAP: when the index is partitioned, and if partition_name is a valid index partition, then this procedure will swap the index partition data and the index partition metadata, and will process the online pending queue for this partition.

    This procedure swaps only one partition at a time. When you run this procedure on partitions that are recreated with NOSWAP:

    • Queries that span multiple partitions will not return consistent results across all partitions.

    • Queries on the partition that is being swapped will return errors.

    • Queries on partitions that are already swapped will be based on the new index.

    • Queries on the partitions that haven't been swapped will be based on the old index.

    If the partition_name is NULL, then this procedure will swap the index metadata. Run this procedure as the last step when recreating a local partitioned index online.

  • Sync Behavior:

    After running EXCHANGE_SHADOW_INDEX, you must call the SYNC_INDEX operation to synchronize any DML that occurs during the build of the shadow index. If you have specified SYNC(ON COMMIT) or SYNC(EVERY), then the sync occurs automatically. However, if you have specified SYNC(MANUAL), then you must manually invoke SYNC_INDEX.

Related Topics

CTX_DDL."RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE"

CTX_DDL."CREATE_SHADOW_INDEX"

CTX_DDL."DROP_SHADOW_INDEX"

8.33 LOAD_STOPLIST

Use this procedure to load a source file of stopwords to your stoplist for the required language.

A default stoplist is automatically loaded during installation or upgrade based on the database language that you choose. By default, only one SQL file is loaded for the chosen language. You can call the CTX_DDL.LOAD_STOPLIST procedure to customize your stoplist or modify the default list of stopwords. This procedure takes a source file of stopwords for the specified language and adds each word to your stoplist from the stoplist_dir/stoplist_file.

The Oracle Text supplied stoplists contain default stopwords for all BASIC_LEXER and AUTO_LEXER supported languages.

You can also load multi-language stoplists to hold language-specific stopwords. A multi-language stoplist is useful when you index a table that contains documents in different languages, such as English, German, and Japanese. When indexing a multi-language table with a multi-language stoplist, the table must have a language column.

Specify a stoplist in the parameter string of CREATE INDEX or ALTER INDEX to override the default stoplist CTXSYS.DEFAULT_STOPLIST. Add either stopwords, stopclasses, or stopthemes to a stoplist using ADD_STOPWORD, ADD_STOPCLASS, or ADD_STOPTHEME.

Syntax

PROCEDURE LOAD_STOPLIST(
  stoplist_name       IN  VARCHAR2,
  stoplist_dir        IN  VARCHAR2,
  stoplist_file       IN  VARCHAR2,
  language            IN  VARCHAR2 default NULL,
  language_dependent  IN BOOLEAN default TRUE
)
stoplist_name

Specify the name of the stoplist to be loaded.

stoplist_dir

Specify the directory location of the source file that you want to load. The source files for default stoplists are located in the $ORACLE_HOME/ctx/data/stoplist directory.

stoplist_file

Specify the name of the source file located in the $ORACLE_HOME/ctx/data/stoplist directory. These source files are named drstopLANG.txt, where LANG specifies the language code. The contents of the source files are the extracted terms from the drdefLANG.sql files (located in the $ORACLE_HOME/ctx/admin directory).

language

Specify the language of a stopword when loading multi-language stoplists. You must specify the globalization support name or abbreviation of an Oracle Text-supported language.

To make a stopword active in multiple languages, specify ALL for this parameter. For example, defining ALL stopwords is useful when you have international documents that contain English fragments to be stopped in any language. An ALL stopword is active in all languages. If you use multi-lexer, the language-specific lexing of a stopword occurs just as if it has been added multiple times in multiple specific languages.

Otherwise, specify NULL.

language_dependent

Set this parameter to FALSE to indicate that any user-defined string can be specified for the language parameter.

Examples

  • Single-language stoplist:

    The following example loads a stoplist named mystop for French (language code: f):
    begin
    ctx_ddl.load_stoplist('mystop', 'ORACLE_HOME/ctx/data/stoplist', 'drstopf.txt');
    end;
  • Multi-language stoplist:

    The following example loads a multi-language stoplist named multistop for Arabic (language code: ar) and Dutch (language code: nl):
    begin
    ctx_ddl.load_stoplist('multistop', 'ORACLE_HOME/ctx/data/stoplist', 'drstopar.txt', 'arabic'); 
    ctx_ddl.load_stoplist('multistop', 'ORACLE_HOME/ctx/data/stoplist', 'drstopnl.txt', 'dutch');
    end;

8.34 OPTIMIZE_INDEX

Use this procedure to optimize the index. Optimizing an index removes old data and minimizes index fragmentation, which can improve query response time.

Optimize your index after you synchronize it. Querying and DML may proceed while optimization takes place.

You can optimize in fast, full, rebuild, token, token-type, or merge mode.

  • Fast mode compacts data but does not remove rows.

  • Full mode compacts data and removes rows.

  • Optimize in rebuild mode rebuilds the $I table (the inverted list table) in its entirety. Rebuilding an index is often significantly faster than performing a full optimization, and is more likely to result in smaller indexes, especially if the index is heavily fragmented.

    Rebuild optimization creates a more compact copy of the $I table, and then switches the original $I table and the copy. The rebuild operation will therefore require enough space to store the copy as well as the original. (If redo logging is enabled, then additional space is required in the redo log as well.) At the end of the rebuild operation, the original $I table is dropped, and the space can be reused. A temporary "change capture trigger" is used to ensure that updates to the $I table during the optimization are not lost. For this reason, the user calling OPTIMIZE_INDEX in REBUILD mode must have the CREATE TRIGGER privilege.

    Optimize in rebuild mode supports partitioning on the $I table via the i_table_clause attribute of the basic_storage preference with the following limitations:

    • The i_index_clause must specify using a local btree index if the $I table is partitioned.

    • Partitioning schemes on the token_first, token_last, or token_count columns are not allowed.

  • In token mode, specify a specific token to be optimized (for example, all rows with documents containing the word elections). Use this mode to optimize index tokens that are frequently searched, without spending time on optimizing tokens that are rarely referenced. An optimized token can improve query response time (but only for queries on that token).

    Starting with Oracle Database Release 21c, the topN fragmented tokens in the $I table are optimized. The $SN and $ST tables are also optimized.

  • Token-type optimization is similar to token mode, except that the optimization is performed on field, MDATA, or SDATA sections (for example, sections with an <A> tag). This is useful in keeping critical field or MDATA sections optimal.

  • Use the merge mode to optimize the $I table for the CONTEXT indexes that are frequently used for DML operations. The merge operation compacts the existing data in the $G table, and then copies that data to the $I table. The compacted rows are then deleted from the $G table.

A common strategy for optimizing indexes is to perform regular token optimizations on frequently referenced terms, and to perform rebuild optimizations less frequently. (Use CTX_REPORT.QUERY_LOG_SUMMARY to find out which queries are made most frequently.) You can perform full, fast, or token-type optimizations instead of token optimizations.

Some users choose to perform frequent time-limited full optimizations along with occasional rebuild optimizations.

Note:

  • Optimizing an index can result in better response time only if you insert, delete, or update documents in the base table after your initial indexing operation.

  • When you run index optimization, any work in the session is committed effectively and that work cannot be rolled back.

  • You cannot run DDL ALTER TABLE .. MODIFY concurrently with an index synchronization or index maintenance operation, such as SYNC_INDEX.

Using this procedure to optimize the index is recommended over using the ALTER INDEX statement.

Optimization of a large index may take a long time. To monitor the progress of a lengthy optimization, log the optimization with CTX_OUTPUT.START_LOG and check the resultant logfile from time to time.

Note that, unlike serial optimize full, CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX() run with optlevel of FULL and parallel_degree > 1 is not resumable. That is, it will not resume from where it left after a time-out or failure.

Note:

There is a very small window of time when a query might fail in CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX REBUILD mode when the $I table is being swapped with the optimized shadow $I table.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX( 
idx_name        IN  VARCHAR2, 
optlevel        IN  VARCHAR2, 
maxtime         IN  NUMBER DEFAULT NULL, 
token           IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
part_name       IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
token_type      IN NUMBER DEFAULT NULL,
parallel_degree IN NUMBER DEFAULT 1,
maxtokens       IN NUMBER DEFAULT NULL,
section_type    IN NUMBER DEFAULT NULL 
); 
idx_name

Specify the name of the index. If you do not specify an index name, then Oracle Text chooses a single index to optimize.

optlevel

Specify optimization level as a string. You can specify one of the following methods for optimization:

optlevel value Description

FAST or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_FAST

This method compacts fragmented rows. However, old data is not removed.

FAST optimization is not supported for CTXCAT indexes. FAST optimization will not optimize $S index table.

Fast optimization is not supported for local Oracle Text search indexes.

FULL or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_FULL

In this mode you can optimize the entire index or a portion of the index. This method compacts rows and removes old data (deleted rows). Optimizing in full mode runs even when there are no deleted rows.

Full optimization is not supported for CTXCAT indexes.

REBUILD or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_REBUILD

This optlevel rebuilds the $I table (the inverted list table) to produce more compact token info rows. Like FULL optimize, this mode also deletes information pertaining to deleted rows of the base table.

REBUILD is not supported for CTCAT, CTXRULE, and local Oracle Text search indexes.

TOKEN or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_TOKEN

This method lets you specify a specific token to be optimized. Oracle Text does a full optimization on the token you specify with token. If no token type is provided, 0 (zero) will be used as the default.

Use this method to optimize those tokens that are searched frequently.

Token optimization is not supported for CTCAT and CTXRULE indexes.

TOKEN_TYPE or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_TOKEN_TYPE

This optlevel optimizes on demand all tokens in the index matching either the input token type or the input section type.

When optlevel is TOKEN_TYPE, either token_type or section_type must be provided. TOKEN_TYPE performs FULL optimize on any token of the input token_type or section_type, whichever is provided. Like a TOKEN optimize, TOKEN_TYPE optimize does not change the FULL optimize state, and runs to completion on each invocation.

Token_type optimization is not supported for CTCAT and CTXRULE indexes.

MERGE or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_MERGE

This optlevel compacts the rows in the staging $G table and merges them into the $I table.

This option is not supported at the token level. Specifying the TOKEN attribute with this option results in an error.

Merge optimization should be used for CONTEXT indexes with the STAGE_ITAB index option enabled.

The behavior of CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX with respect to the $S index table is as follows:

optlevel value Will Optimize $S Index Table Yes/No Notes

FAST or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_FAST

No

FULL or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_FULL

Yes

  • The optimize process will optimize $I table first. Once $I table optimize is finished, CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX will continue on to optimize $S index table.

  • MAXTIME will also be honored. Once CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX completes optimizing $S rows for a given SDATA_ID, it will check MAXTIME and exit if total elapsed time (including time taken to optimize $I) exceeds specified MAXTIME. The next CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX with optlevel=>'FULL' will pick up where it left off.

  • $S table optimize will be done in serial.

REBUILD or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_REBUILD

Yes

  • $S optimize will start after $I rebuild finishes.

  • $S optimize in this case will be processed the same way as $S optimize in FULL mode. $S table is optimized in place, not rebuilt.

    Note: If for some reason $S optimize exits unusually, then it is recommended that you use optlevel=>TOKEN_TYPE to optimize $S to avoid rebuilding the $I table again.

  • $S table optimize will be done in serial.

TOKEN or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_TOKEN

No

TOKEN_TYPE or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_TOKEN_TYPE

Yes

You can optimize $S rows for a given SDATA_ID by setting optlevel => TOKEN_TYPE and the TOKEN_TYPE parameter to the target SDATA_ID.

maxtime

Specify maximum optimization time, in minutes, for FULL optimize.

When you specify the symbol CTX_DDL.MAXTIME_UNLIMITED (or pass in NULL), the entire index is optimized. This is the default.

token

Specify the token to be optimized.

part_name

If your index is a local index, then you must specify the name of the index partition to synchronize otherwise an error is returned.

If your index is a global, nonpartitioned index, then specify NULL, which is the default.

token_type

Specify the token_type to be optimized.

You can find the token_type by using the CTX_REPORT.TOKEN_TYPE method or the CTX_USER_SECTIONS view.

parallel_degree

Specify the parallel degree as a number for parallel optimization. The actual parallel degree depends on your resources.

Because the optlevel values are executed serially, this setting throws the error DRG-10598 for the following values:

  • TOKEN or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_TOKEN

  • FAST or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_FAST

maxtokens

Specify the maxtokens to be optimized.

maxtokens attribute can be specified only when optlevel value is set to TOKEN or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_TOKEN and when the token parameter is NULL.

Note:

  • If the number of fragmented tokens exceeds 50% of total number of tokens in $I and maxtokens is not specified, then “index too fragmented” error is returned.

  • If maxtokens specified is negative or greater than 50% of total number of tokens in $I, then “invalid value for maxtokens” error is returned.

section_type

Specify the section_type to optimize all sections of a certain type. This parameter can have one of the following values:

section_type value Description

CTX_DDL.SECTION_FIELD

The optimization is run for all field sections in the index.

CTX_DDL.SECTION_SORT_SDATA

The optimization is run for all optimized_for sort SDATA sections in the index.

CTX_DDL.SECTION_MDATA

The optimization is run for all MDATA sections in the index.

CTX_DDL.SECTION_SEARCH_SDATA

The optimization is run for all optimized_for search SDATA sections in the index.

CTX_DDL.SECTION_WILDCARD_INDEX

The optimization is run for the $KG table (that is, the wildcard search index).

Note:

  • You can specify section_type only when the optlevel value is set to TOKEN_TYPE or CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_TOKEN_TYPE.

  • In the absence of sections of the specified type, index optimization for section_type is a no-op (no operations). Similarly, in the absence of the $KG table, index optimization for the CTX_DDL.SECTION_WILDCARD_INDEX section_type value is a no-op.

Examples

The following two examples are equivalent ways of optimizing an index using fast optimization:

begin 
  ctx_ddl.optimize_index('myidx','FAST'); 
end;

begin
  ctx_ddl.optimize_index('myidx',CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_FAST);
end;

The following example optimizes the index token Oracle:

begin
  ctx_ddl.optimize_index('myidx','token', TOKEN=>'Oracle');
end;

To optimize all tokens of field section MYSEC in index MYINDEX:

begin
  ctx_ddl.optimize_index('myindex', ctx_ddl.optlevel_token_type,
     token_type=> ctx_report.token_type('myindex','field mysec text'));end;

The following two examples are equivalent ways of optimizing an index using merge optimization:

begin 
  ctx_ddl.optimize_index('idx','MERGE'); 
end;

begin
  ctx_ddl.optimize_index('idx',CTX_DDL.OPTLEVEL_MERGE);
end;

The following example optimizes the top 10 fragmented tokens in $I:

begin
 ctx_ddl.optimize_index('idx','TOKEN',maxtokens=>10);
end;

Notes

  • You can run CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX and CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX at the same time. You can also run CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX and CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX with parallelism at the same time. However, you should not:

    • Run CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX with parallelism at the same time as CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX

    • Run CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX with parallelism at the same time as CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX with parallelism.

    If you should run one of these combinations, no error is generated; however, one operation will wait until the other is done.

  • You cannot sync or optimize an index that is owned by a different schema. Doing so results in the "DRG-10016: You must be the owner to modify this object" error.

Related Topics

8.35 POPULATE_PENDING

This procedure populates the pending queue with every rowid in the base table or table partition. This procedure is only supported for CONTEXT indexes.

This procedure is valuable for large installations that cannot afford to have the indexing process run continuously, and, therefore, need finer control over creating text indexes. The preferred method is to create an empty index, place all the rowids into the pending queue, and build the index through CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX.

Syntax

ctx_ddl.populate_pending(
  idx_name  IN VARCHAR2,
  part_name IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL
);
idx_name

Name of the CONTEXT indextype.

part_name

Name of the index partition, if any. Must be provided for local partitioned indexes and must be NULL for global, nonpartitioned indexes.

Notes

The SYNC_INDEX is blocked for the duration of the processing. The index unit must be totally empty (idx_docid_count = 0, idx_nextid = 1). The rowids of rows waiting to be indexed are inserted into table ctxsys.dr$pending. You should ensure that there is sufficient space in this table to hold the rowids of the base table.

8.36 PREFERENCE_IMPLICIT_COMMIT

This variable, set at the package level for CTX_DDL, determines whether procedures related to CTX_DDL preferences issue an implicit commit and is session duration.

You can set the PREFERENCE_IMPLICIT_COMMIT variable for the procedures listed in the following table.

Note:

The REMOVE_STOPCLASS, REMOVE_STOPTHEME, and REMOVE_STOPWORD procedures do not issue an implicit commit, and, therefore, do not use the PREFERENCE_IMPLICIT_COMMIT flag.

Syntax

exec CTX_DDL.PREFERENCE_IMPLICIT_COMMIT := TRUE|FALSE ;

The default value of the PREFERENCE_IMPLICIT_COMMIT variable is TRUE. When this variable is set to FALSE, procedures related to CTX_DDL preferences will not issue an implicit commit. This enables you to easily rollback multiple preference changes. This variable is session duration.

Example

The following example turns off implicit commit.

exec CTX_DDL.PREFERENCE_IMPLICIT_COMMIT : update_sub_lexer = FALSE;

8.37 RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE

Recreates the specified index, or recreates the passed-in index partition if the index is local partitioned.

For global nonpartitioned indexes, this is a one-step procedure. For local partitioned indexes, this procedure must be run separately on every partition after first using CREATE_SHADOW_INDEX to create a shadow policy (or metadata). This procedure is only supported in Enterprise Edition of Oracle Database.

The following changes are not supported:

  • Transitioning from non-composite domain index to composite, or changing the composite domain index columns.

  • Rebuilding indexes that have partitioned index tables, for example, $I, $P, $K.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE(
   idx_name          IN VARCHAR2,
   parameter_string  IN VARCHAR2 default NULL,
   parallel_degree   IN NUMBER default 1,
   partition_name    IN VARCHAR2 default NULL
);
idx_name

The name of a valid CONTEXT indextype.

parameter_string

If the index is a global nonpartitioned index, specify the same index-level parameter string as in ALTER INDEX. Must start with REPLACE, if it is not NULL. Optionally specify SWAP or NOSWAP. The default is SWAP.

parallel_degree

Reserved for future use. Specify the degree of parallelism. Parallel operation is not supported in the current release.

partition_name

Specify the name of a valid index partition for a local partitioned index. Otherwise, the default is NULL. If the index is partitioned, then first pass a partition name, and then specify the partition-level parameter string for ALTER INDEX REBUILD PARTITION.

Examples

Example 8-5 Recreate Simple Global Index

The following example creates an index idx with a BASIC_LEXER-based preference us_lexer. It then recreates the index with a new MULTI_LEXER based preference m_lexer in one step. You can use this one step approach when you do not mind that a query might fail for a small window of time at the end of the operation, and DML might get blocked at the beginning for a short time and again at the end.

/* create lexer and original index */
exec ctx_ddl.create_preference('us_lexer','basic_lexer');
create index idx on tbl(text) indextype is ctxsys.context
  parameters('lexer us_lexer');
 
/* create a new lexer */
begin
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('e_lexer','basic_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.set_attribute('e_lexer','base_letter','yes');
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('m_lexer','multi_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('m_lexer','default','us_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('m_lexer','e','e_lexer');
end;
/
 
/* add new language column to the table for multi-lexer */
alter table tbl add(lang varchar2(10) default 'us');
 
/* recreate index online with the new multip-lexer */
exec ctx_ddl.recreate_index_online('idx',
  'replace lexer m_lexer language column lang');

Example 8-6 Local Index Recreate with All-At-Once Swap

The following example creates a local partitioned index idxp with a basic lexer us_lexer. It has two index partitions idx_p1 and idx_p2. It then recreates a local partitioned index idxp online with partition idx_p1, which will have a new storage preference new_store. The swapping of the partition metadata and index partition data occur at the end. In this example, queries spanning multiple partitions return consistent results across partitions when recreate is in process, except at the end when EXCHANGE_SHADOW_INDEX is running. The extra space required is the combined index size of partition idx_p1 and idx_p2.

/* create a basic lexer and a local partition index with the lexer*/
exec ctx_ddl.create_preference('us_lexer','basic_lexer');
create index idxp on tblp(text) indextype is ctxsys.context local
  (partition idx_p1,
   partition idx_p2)
 parameters('lexer us_lexer');
 
/* create new preferences  */
begin
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('my_store','basic_storage');
  ctx_ddl.set_attribute('my_store','i_table_clause','tablespace tbs');
end;
/
begin
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('e_lexer','basic_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.set_attribute('e_lexer','base_letter','yes');
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('m_lexer','multi_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('m_lexer','default','us_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('m_lexer','e','e_lexer');
end;
/
 
/* add new language column */
alter table tblp add column (lang varchar2(10) default 'us');
 
/* create a shadow policy with a new lexer */
exec ctx_ddl.create_shadow_index('idxp', null,
  'replace lexer m_lexer language column lang');
 
/* recreate every index partition online without swapping */
exec ctx_ddl.recreate_index_online('idxp',
   'replace storage my_store NOSWAP', 1, 'idx_p1');
exec ctx_ddl.recreate_index_online('idxp','replace NOSWAP',1,'idx_p2');
 
/* exchange in shadow index partition all at once */
exec ctx_ddl.exchange_shadow_index('idxp',
      'idx_p1') /* exchange index partition data*/
exec ctx_ddl.exchange_shadow_index('idxp',
      'idx_p2') /* exchange index partition data*/
 
/* exchange in shadow index metadata */
exec ctx_ddl.exchange_shadow_index('idxp')

Example 8-7 Local Index Recreate with Per-Partition Swap

This example performs the same tasks as Example 8-6, except that each index partition is swapped in as it is completed. Queries across all partitions may return inconsistent results in this example.

/* create a basic lexer and a local partition index with the lexer*/
exec ctx_ddl.create_preference('us_lexer','basic_lexer');
create index idxp on tblp(text) indextype is ctxsys.context local
  (partition idx_p1,
   partition idx_p2)
 parameters('lexer us_lexer');
 
/* create new preferences  */
begin
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('my_store','basic_storage');
  ctx_ddl.set_attribute('my_store','i_table_clause','tablespace tbs');
end;
/
begin
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('e_lexer','basic_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.set_attribute('e_lexer','base_letter','yes');
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('m_lexer','multi_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('m_lexer','default','us_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('m_lexer','e','e_lexer');
end;
/
 
/* add new language column */
alter table tblp add column (lang varchar2(10) default 'us');
 
/* create a shadow policy with a new lexer *
exec ctx_ddl.create_shadow_index('idxp',
  'replace lexer m_lexer language column lang');
 
/* recreate every index partition online and swap (default) */
exec ctx_ddl.recreate_index_online('idxp',
       'replace storage my_store', 1, 'idx_p1');
exec ctx_ddl.recreate_index_online('idxp', 'replace SWAP', 1, 'idx_p2',
   
    /* exchange in shadow index metadata */
exec ctx_ddl.exchange_shadow_index('idxp') 

Example 8-8 Scheduled Local Index Recreate with All-At-Once Swap

This example shows the incremental recreation of a local partitioned index, where partitions are all swapped at the end.

/* create a basic lexer and a local partition index with the lexer*/
exec ctx_ddl.create_preference('us_lexer','basic_lexer');
create index idxp on tblp(text) indextype is ctxsys.context local
  (partition idx_p1,
   partition idx_p2)
 parameters('lexer us_lexer');
 
/* create new preferences  */
begin
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('my_store','basic_storage');
  ctx_ddl.set_attribute('my_store','i_table_clause','tablespace tbs');
end;
/
begin
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('e_lexer','basic_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.set_attribute('e_lexer','base_letter','yes');
  ctx_ddl.create_preference('m_lexer','multi_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('m_lexer','default','us_lexer');
  ctx_ddl.add_sub_lexer('m_lexer','e','e_lexer');
end;
/
 
/* add new language column */
alter table tblp add column (lang varchar2(10) default 'us');
 
/* create a shadow policy with a new lexer *
exec ctx_ddl.create_shadow_index('idxp',
  'replace lexer m_lexer language column lang');
/* create shadow partition with new storage preference */
exec ctx_ddl.recreate_index_online('idxp', 'replace storage ctxsys.default_storage nopopulate',1,'idx_p1');
exec ctx_ddl.recreate_index_online('idxp', 'replace storage ctxsys.default_storage nopopulate',1,'idx_p2');
 
declare
  idxid integer;
  ixpid integer;
begin
  select idx_id into idxid from ctx_user_indexes
    where idx_name = 'IDXP';
  select ixp_id into ixpid from ctx_user_index_partitions
    where ixp_index_name = 'IDXP'
          and ixp_index_partition_name = 'IDX_P1';
  /* populate pending */
  ctx_ddl.populate_pending('RIO$'||idxid, 'RIO$'||idxid||'#'||ixpid);
  /* incremental sync
  ctx_ddl.sync_index('RIO$'||idxid, null, 'RIO$'||idxid||'#'||ixpid,
                      maxtime=>400);
  /* more incremental sync until no more pending rows */
 
  select ixp_id into ixpid from ctx_user_index_partitions
    where ixp_index_name = 'IDXP'
          and ixp_index_partition_name = 'IDX_P2';
  /* populate pending */
  ctx_ddl.populate_pending('RIO$'||idxid, 'RIO$'||idxid||'#'||ixpid);
  /* incremental sync
  ctx_ddl.sync_index('RIO$'||idxid, null, 'RIO$'||idxid||'#'||ixpid,
                      maxtime=>400);
  /* more incremental sync until no more pending rows */
end;
/
  
exec ctx_ddl.exchange_shadow_index('idxp','idx_p1');
exec ctx_ddl.exchange_shadow_index('idxp','idx_p2');
exec ctx_ddl.exchange_shadow_index('idxp');

Example 8-9 Schedule Local Index Recreate with Per-Partition Swap

For incremental recreate where partitions are swapped as they becomes available, follow the steps in example Example 8-8, except instead of waiting until all syncs are finished before starting exchange shadow index, EXCHANGE_SHADOW_INDEX is done for each partition right after sync is finished.

Notes

  • Using RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE with Global Nonpartitioned Indexes:

    For global indexes, this procedure provides a one-step process to recreate an index online. It recreates an index, with new preference values, while preserving base table DML and query capability during the recreate process.

    Because the new index is created alongside the existing index, this operation requires additional storage roughly equal to the size of the existing index.

  • DML Behavior:

    Because this procedure is performed online, DML on the base table are permitted during this operation, and are processed as normal. All DML statements that occur during RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE are logged into an online pending queue.

    Towards the end of the recreate operation, there will be a short duration when DML will fail with an error being raised stating that the index is in an in-progress status. DML may stop responding again during the process, and the duration will depend on how many DML are logged in the online pending queue since the start of the recreate process.

    Note that after the recreate index operation is complete, new information, from all the DML that becomes pending since RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE started, may not be immediately reflected. As with creating an index with INDEXTYPE IS ctxsys.context ONLINE, the index should be synchronized after the recreate index operation is complete, to bring it fully up-to-date.

  • Sync and Optimize Behavior:

    Syncs issued against the index during the recreate operation are processed against the old, existing data. Syncs are also blocked during the same window when queries return errors.

    After running RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE, you must call the SYNC_INDEX operation to synchronize any DML that occurs during the build of the shadow index. If you have specified SYNC(ON COMMIT) or SYNC(EVERY), then the sync occurs automatically. However, if you have specified SYNC(MANUAL), then you must manually invoke SYNC_INDEX.

    Optimize commands issued against the index during the recreate operation return immediately without error and without processing.

  • Query Behavior:

    During the recreate operation, the index can be queried normally most of the time. Queries return results based on the existing index and policy (or metadata) until after the final swap.

    There is a short interval towards the end of RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE when queries will return an error indicating that the column is not indexed. This duration should be short for regular queries. It is mainly the time taken for swapping data segments of the shadow index tables and the index tables, plus the time to delete all the rows in the pending queue. This is the same window of time when DML will fail.

    During RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE, if you issue DML statements and synchronize them, then you will be able to see the new rows when you query on the existing index. However, after RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE finishes (swapping completes and query is on the new index) and before sync is performed, it is possible that you will not be able to query on the new rows, which once could be queried on the old index.

    Transactional queries are not supported.

  • Using RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE with Local Partitioned Indexes:

    If the index is local partitioned, you cannot recreate index in one step. You must first create a shadow policy, and then run this procedure for every partition. You can specify SWAP or NOSWAP to indicate whether RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE partition will swap the index partition data and index partition metadata or not. If the partition was built with NOSWAP, then another call to EXCHANGE_SHADOW_INDEX must be invoked later against this partition.

    This procedure can also be used to update the metadata (for example, storage preference) of each partition when you specify NOPOPULATE in the parameter string. This is useful for incremental building of a shadow index through time-limited sync.

    If NOPOPULATE is specified, then NOSWAP is silently enforced.

  • NOSWAP Behavior:

    During the recreate of the index partition, since no swapping is performed, queries on the partition are processed regularly. Until the swapping stage is reached, queries spanning multiple partitions return consistent results across partitions.

    DML and sync are processed normally. Running optimize on partitions that are being recreated, or that have been built (but not swapped), simply returns without doing anything. Running optimize on a partition that has not been rebuilt processes normally.

    As with a global index, when all of the partitions use NOSWAP, the additional storage requirement is roughly equal to the size of the existing index.

  • SWAP Behavior:

    Because index partition data and metadata are swapped after index recreate, queries that span multiple partitions will not return consistent results from partition to partition, but will always be correct with respect to each index partition. There is also a short interval towards the end of partition recreate, when the index partition is swapped, during which a query will return a "column not indexed" error.

    When partitions are recreated with SWAP, the additional storage requirement for the operation is equal to the size of the existing index partition.

    DML on the partition is blocked. Sync is also blocked during swapping.

  • Restrictions:

    The RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE and CREATE_SHADOW_INDEX procedures do not support section group with the XML_ENABLE attribute on CONTEXT indexes. Doing so results in the "DRG-10521: Operation not supported with XML_ENABLE on a CONTEXT Index" error.

    The RECREATE_INDEX_ONLINE and CREATE_SHADOW_INDEX procedures are not supported for search indexes.

8.38 REM_SEC_GRP_ATTR_VAL

Removes a specific section group attribute value from the list of values of an existing section group attribute.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.REM_SEC_GRP_ATTR_VAL(group_name IN VARCHAR2,
                      attribute_name  IN VARCHAR2,   
                      attribute_value IN VARCHAR2); 
group_name

Specify the section group name.

attribute_name

Specify the name of the section group attribute.

attribute_value

Specify the section group attribute value.

8.39 REMOVE_AUTO_OPTIMIZE

Removes an index or partition from the list of indexes subject to auto optimization. No new auto optimization calls are made to this index. The removal takes effect immediately.

If the specified index is not in the existing list of indexes, then an error occurs. For partitioned indexes, an error occurs when the partition name is not specified.

Note:

In Oracle Database Release 21c, the procedures ADD_AUTO_OPTIMIZE and REMOVE_AUTO_OPTIMIZE, and the views CTX_AUTO_OPTIMIZE_INDEXES, CTX_USER_AUTO_OPTIMIZE_INDEXES and CTX_AUTO_OPTIMIZE_STATUS are deprecated.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.REMOVE_AUTO_OPTIMIZE(
    idx_name       IN VARCHAR2,
    part_name      IN VARCHAR2 default NULL
);
idx_name

Specify the name of the index to remove.

part_name

Specify the name of the partition to remove.

Related Topic

"ADD_AUTO_OPTIMIZE"

8.40 REMOVE_INDEX

Removes the index with the specified column list from a CTXCAT index set preference.

This procedure does not remove a CTXCAT sub-index from the existing index. To do so, you must drop your index and re-index with the modified index set preference.

Note:

The Oracle Text indextype CTXCAT is deprecated with Oracle Database 23ai. The indextype itself, and it's operator CTXCAT, can be removed in a future release.

CTXCAT was introduced when indexes were typically a few megabytes in size. Modern, large indexes, can be difficult to manage with CTXCAT. The addition of index sets to CTXCAT can be achieved more effectively by the use of FILTER BY and ORDER BY columns, or SDATA, or both, in the CONTEXT indextype. CTXCAT is therefore rarely an appropriate choice. Oracle recommends that you choose the more efficient CONTEXT indextype.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.REMOVE_INDEX(
    set_name       IN VARCHAR2,
    column_list    IN VARCHAR2
    language       IN VARCHAR2 default NULL
);
set_name

Specify the name of the index set.

column_list

Specify the name of the column list to remove.

8.41 REMOVE_MDATA

Use this procedure to remove metadata values, which are associated with an MDATA section, from a document.

Only the owner of the index is allowed to call ADD_MDATA and REMOVE_MDATA.

CTX_DDL.REMOVE_MDATA is transactional and takes effect immediately in the calling session. This procedure can be seen only in the calling session and must be committed to take permanent effect. You can reverse this procedure with a ROLLBACK command.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.REMOVE_MDATA(
     idx_name           IN VARCHAR2, 
     section_name       IN VARCHAR2, 
     values             SYS.ODCIVARCHAR2LIST,
     rowids             SYS.ODCIRIDLIST,
     [part_name]        IN VARCHAR2
);
idx_name

Name of the text index that contains the named rowids.

section_name

Name of the MDATA section.

values

List of metadata values. If a metadata value contains a comma, the comma must be escaped with a backslash.

rowids

Rowids from which to remove the metadata values.

[part_name]

Name of the index partition, if any. Must be provided for local partitioned indexes and must be NULL for global, nonpartitioned indexes.

Example

This example removes the MDATA value blue from the MDATA section BGCOLOR.

ctx_ddl.remove_mdata('idx_docs', 'bgcolor', 'blue', 'rows'); 

Note:

  • These updates are updates directly on the index itself, not on the actual contents stored in the base table. Therefore, they will not exist when the Text index is rebuilt.

  • CTX_DDL.REMOVE_MDATA is not supported for documents with Oracle Text search index as stage_itab is ON by default for Oracle Text search index.

Related Topics

"ADD_MDATA"

"ADD_MDATA_SECTION"

"MDATA"

The Section Searching chapter of Oracle Text Application Developer's Guide

8.42 REMOVE_SECTION

The REMOVE_SECTION procedure removes the specified section from the specified section group. You can specify the section by name or ID. View section ID with the CTX_USER_SECTIONS view.

Syntax 1

Use the following syntax to remove a section by section name:

CTX_DDL.REMOVE_SECTION(
  group_name       IN    VARCHAR2, 
  section_name     IN    VARCHAR2
);
group_name

Specify the name of the section group from which to delete section_name.

section_name

Specify the name of the section to delete from group_name.

Syntax 2

Use the following syntax to remove a section by section ID:

CTX_DDL.REMOVE_SECTION(
  group_name     IN    VARCHAR2,
  section_id     IN    NUMBER
);
group_name

Specify the name of the section group from which to delete section_id.

section_id

Specify the section ID of the section to delete from group_name.

Example

The following example drops a section called Title from the htmgroup:

begin
ctx_ddl.remove_section('htmgroup', 'Title');
end;

8.43 REMOVE_STOPCLASS

Removes a stopclass from a stoplist.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.REMOVE_STOPCLASS(
  stoplist_name  IN   VARCHAR2,
  stopclass      IN   VARCHAR2
);
stoplist_name

Specify the name of the stoplist.

stopclass

Specify the name of the stopclass to be removed.

Example

The following example removes the stopclass NUMBERS from the stoplist mystop.

begin
ctx_ddl.remove_stopclass('mystop', 'NUMBERS');
end;

Related Topic

"ADD_STOPCLASS "

8.44 REMOVE_STOPTHEME

Removes a stoptheme from a stoplist.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.REMOVE_STOPTHEME(
  stoplist_name   IN   VARCHAR2,
  stoptheme       IN   VARCHAR2
);
stoplist_name

Specify the name of the stoplist.

stoptheme

Specify the stoptheme to be removed from stoplist_name.

Example

The following example removes the stoptheme banking from the stoplist mystop:

begin
ctx_ddl.remove_stoptheme('mystop', 'banking');
end;

Related Topic

"ADD_STOPTHEME "

8.45 REMOVE_STOPWORD

Removes a stopword from a stoplist. To have the removal of a stopword be reflected in the index, you must rebuild your index. You can also remove a language-independent stopword.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.REMOVE_STOPWORD(
stoplist_name  IN   VARCHAR2,
stopword       IN   VARCHAR2,
language       IN   VARCHAR2 default NULL
);
stoplist_name

Specify the name of the stoplist.

stopword

Specify the stopword to be removed from stoplist_name.

language

Specify the language of stopword to remove when the stoplist you specify with stoplist_name is of type MULTI_STOPLIST. You must specify the globalization support name or abbreviation of an Oracle Text-supported language. You can also remove ALL stopwords.

Example

The following example removes a stopword because from the stoplist mystop:

begin
ctx_ddl.remove_stopword('mystop','because');
end;

Related Topic

"ADD_STOPWORD "

8.46 REMOVE_SUB_LEXER

Removes a sub-lexer from a multi-lexer preference. You cannot remove the lexer for DEFAULT. You can also remove a language-independent sub-lexer.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.REMOVE_SUB_LEXER(
lexer_name  IN   VARCHAR2,
language    IN   VARCHAR2 default NULL
);
lexer_name

Specify the name of the multi-lexer preference or language-independent sub-lexer.

language

Specify the language of the sub-lexer to remove. You must specify the globalization support name or abbreviation of an Oracle Text-supported language.

Example

The following example removes a sub-lexer german_lexer of language german:

begin
ctx_ddl.remove_sub_lexer('german_lexer','german');
end;

Related Topic

"ADD_SUB_LEXER "

8.47 REPLACE_INDEX_METADATA

Use this procedure to replace metadata in local domain indexes at the global (index) level.

Note:

The ALTER INDEX PARAMETERS command performs the same function as this procedure and can replace more than just metadata. For that reason, using ALTER INDEX PARAMETERS is the preferred method of replacing metadata at the global (index) level and should be used in place of this procedure when possible. For more information, see "ALTER INDEX PARAMETERS Syntax".

CTX_REPLACE_INDEX_METADATA may be deprecated in a future release of Oracle Text.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.REPLACE_INDEX_METADATA(
                      idx_name         IN VARCHAR2,
                      parameter_string IN VARCHAR2 
); 
idx_name

Specify the name of the index whose metadata you want to replace.

parameter_string

Specify the parameter string to be passed to ALTER INDEX. This must begin with 'REPLACE METADATA'.

Notes

ALTER INDEX REBUILD PARAMETERS ('REPLACE METADATA') does not work for a local partitioned index at the index (global) level. You cannot, for example, use that ALTER INDEX syntax to change a global preference, such as filter or lexer type, without rebuilding the index. Therefore, CTX_DDL.REPLACE_INDEX_METADATA is provided as a method of overcoming this limitation of ALTER INDEX. Also, ALTER INDEX REBUILD PARAMETERS ('REPLACE METADATA') does not work with forward_index; instead use 'REPLACE STORAGE'.

Though it is meant as a way to replace metadata for a local partitioned index, CTX_DDL.REPLACE_INDEX_METADATA can be used on a global, nonpartitioned index, as well.

REPLACE_INDEX_METADATA cannot be used to change the sync type at the partition level; that is, parameter_string cannot be 'REPLACE METADATA SYNC'. For that purpose, use ALTER INDEX REBUILD PARTITION to change the sync type at the partition level.

8.48 SET_ATTRIBUTE

Sets a preference attribute. Use this procedure after you have created a preference with CTX_DDL.CREATE_PREFERENCE.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.SET_ATTRIBUTE(
                      preference_name IN VARCHAR2,  
                      attribute_name  IN VARCHAR2,  
                      attribute_value IN VARCHAR2
); 
preference_name

Specify the name of the preference.

Note:

Procedure names should not include the semicolon character.

attribute_name

Specify the name of the attribute.

attribute_value

Specify the attribute value. Specify boolean values as TRUE or FALSE, T or F, YES or NO, Y or N, ON or OFF, or 1 or 0.

Examples

Example 8-10 Specifying File Data Storage

The following example creates a data storage preference called filepref that tells the system that the files to be indexed are stored in an Oracle directory object. The example then uses CTX_DDL.SET_ATTRIBUTE to set the DIRECTORY attribute to the directory /docs.

begin
ctx_ddl.create_preference('filepref', 'DIRECTORY_DATASTORE');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('filepref', 'DIRECTORY', '/docs'); 
end;

Example 8-11 Storing Text Index Tables in the In-Memory Column Store

This example creates a storage preference called mysto of type BASIC_STORAGE that specifies that the $I index table must be stored in the In-Memory Column Store (IM column store).

exec ctx_ddl.create_preference('mysto', 'basic_storage');
exec ctx_ddl.set_attribute('mysto', 'I_TABLE_CLAUSE', 'inmemory’);

8.49 SET_SEC_GRP_ATTR

Adds a section group-specific attribute to a section group identified by name.

Also used to set xml_enable to support XML awareness.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.SET_SEC_GRP_ATTR(
                      group_name      IN VARCHAR2,  
                      attribute_name  IN VARCHAR2,  
                      attribute_value IN VARCHAR2
); 
group_name

Specify the name of the section group.

attribute_name

Specify the name of the section group attribute.

attribute_value
Specify the section group attribute value. The following are the attributes with their supported values:
  • xml_enable: Specify boolean values as TRUE or FALSE, T or F, YES or NO, Y or N, ON or OFF, or 1 or 0.

Related Topics

"CREATE_SECTION_GROUP"

8.50 SET_SECTION_ATTRIBUTE

Use SET_SECTION_ATTRIBUTE to specify attributes or properties for a given section.

The attribute names listed under "Syntax" are supported. Note that some attributes only apply to sections that are tokenized. The following section types are tokenized:

  • Field sections

  • Zone sections

  • SDATA sections

Syntax

CTX_DDL.SET_SECTION_ATTRIBUTE(
                   group_name   IN VARCHAR2,  
                   section_name IN VARCHAR2,  
                   attribute    IN VARCHAR2,
                   value        IN VARCHAR2
 ); 
group_name

Specify the name of the section group.

section_name

Specify the name of the section.

attribute

Specify this attribute for SDATA sections:

  • Visible section attribute

    This attribute works with FIELD sections only. For FIELD sections:

    Specify TRUE to make the text visible within the rest of the document. By default, the visible flag is FALSE. This means that Oracle Text indexes the text within field sections as a sub-document separate from the rest of the document. However, you can set the visible flag to TRUE if you want text within the field section to be indexed as part of the enclosing document.

    For field sections, attribute will override the value specified in CTX_DDL.ADD_FIELD_SECTION.

    An error is thrown if you try to set the visible attribute for a zone section.

    An error is thrown if the visible attribute is set on a non-tokenized section.

  • save_copy. Set to True or False. The save_copy option is valid for all types of sections, but only SDATA attributes are fetched from $D table. The rest of the sections are stored for display purposes only (depending on value of save_copy). SDATA sections are never stored for display purposes, but are stored independently (in a separate column of $D table) for efficient fetching (depending on value of save_copy). For all sections (except for SDATA sections): A section is either displayed or discarded during document service procedures (snippet, markup, highlight) depending on the value of save_copy.

  • optimized_for section attribute

    This attribute makes an SDATA section optimal for search, optimal for sort, or optimal for both search and sort. These are achieved by setting the attribute value to search, sort, or sort_and_search.

    • search provides efficient searching on SDATA sections.

    • sort provides efficient sorting on SDATA sections. This is the default value.

    • sort_and_search provides efficient searching and sorting on SDATA sections.

value

Specify the attribute value. Specify boolean values as TRUE or FALSE, T or F, YES or NO, Y or N, ON or OFF, or 1 or 0.

Example

The following example creates a basic section group called sg, adds a SDATA section to it and marks that SDATA section to be searchable by using the ctx_ddl.set_section_attribute:

begin
   exec ctx_ddl.create_section_group('sg', 'basic_section_group');
   exec ctx_ddl.add_sdata_section('sg', 'sec1', 'sec1', 'varchar2');
   exec ctx_ddl.set_section_attribute('sg', 'sec1', 'optimized_for', 'search');
end;

Notes

Like CTX_DDL.SET_ATTRIBUTE, this procedure issues a commit.

Related Topic

See also the "Searching Document Sections in Oracle Text" chapter of Oracle Text Application Developer's Guide.

8.51 SYNC_INDEX

Synchronizes the index to process inserts, updates, and deletes to the base table.

Note:

Because CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX issues implicit commits, calling CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX in a trigger is strongly discouraged. Doing so can result in errors being raised, as both SYNC_INDEX and post-commit $R LOB maintenance try to update the same $R LOB.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX(
    idx_name        IN  VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL
    memory          IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
    part_name       IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
    parallel_degree IN NUMBER DEFAULT 1
    maxtime         IN NUMBER DEFAULT NULL,
    locking         IN NUMBER DEFAULT LOCK_WAIT
); 
idx_name

Specify the name of the index to synchronize.

Note:

When idx_name is null, all CONTEXT and CTXRULE indexes that have pending changes are synchronized. You must be connected as ctxsys to perform this operation. Each index or index partition is synchronized in sequence, one after the other. Because of this, the individual syncs are performed with locking set to NOWAIT and maxtime set to 0. Any values that you specify for locking or maxtime on the SYNC_INDEX call are ignored. However, the memory and parallel_degree parameters are passed on to the individual synchronizations.

memory

Specify the runtime memory to use for synchronization. This value overrides the DEFAULT_INDEX_MEMORY system parameter.

The memory parameter specifies the amount of memory Oracle Text uses for the synchronization operation before flushing the index to disk. Specifying a large amount of memory:

  • Improves indexing performance because there is less I/O

  • Improves query performance and maintenance because there is less fragmentation

  • The indexing memory size specified in the second argument applies to each parallel worker. For example, if the memory argument is set to 500M and parallel_degree is set to 2, then ensure that there is at least 1GB of memory available on the system used for the parallel SYNC_INDEX.

Specifying smaller amounts of memory increases disk I/O and index fragmentation, but might be useful when runtime memory is scarce.

part_name

If your index is a local index, then the part_name parameter is not mandatory. You may set part_name to specify the name of the index partition to synchronize, otherwise all index partitions are synchronized.

If your index is a global, nonpartitioned index, then specify NULL, which is the default.

parallel_degree

Specify the degree to run parallel synchronize. A number greater than 1 turns on parallel synchronize. The actual degree of parallelism might be smaller depending on your resources.

maxtime

Indicate a suggested time limit on the operation, in minutes. SYNC_INDEX will process as many documents in the queue as possible within the time limit. The maxtime value of NULL is equivalent to CTX_DDL.MAXTIME_UNLIMITED. This parameter is ignored when SYNC_INDEX is invoked without an index name, in which case maxtime value of 0 is used instead. The locking parameter is ignored for automatic syncs (that is, SYNC ON COMMIT or SYNC EVERY).

The time limit specified is treated as approximate. The actual time taken may be somewhat less than or greater than what you specify. The "time clock" for maxtime does not start until the SYNC lock is acquired.

locking

Configure how SYNC_INDEX deals with the situation where another sync is already running on the same index or index partition. When locking is ignored because SYNC_INDEX is invoked without an index name, then locking value of LOCK_NOWAIT is used instead. The locking parameter is ignored for automatic syncs (that is, SYNC ON COMMIT or SYNC EVERY).

The options for locking are:

Locking Parameter Description

CTX_DDL.LOCK_WAIT

If another sync is running, wait until the running sync is complete, then begin sync. (In the event of not being able to get a lock, it will wait forever and ignore the maxtime setting.)

CTX_DDL.LOCK_NOWAIT

If another sync is running, immediately returns without error.

CTX_DDL.LOCK_NOWAIT_ERROR

If another sync is running, error "DRG-51313: timeout while waiting for DML or optimize lock" is raised.

Example

The following example synchronizes the index myindex with 2 megabytes of memory:

begin
ctx_ddl.sync_index('myindex', '2M');
end;

The following example synchronizes the part1 index partition with 2 megabytes of memory:

begin
ctx_ddl.sync_index('myindex', '2M', 'part1');
end;

Notes

  • For indexes with manual maintenance, this API launches sync in the foreground and returns after the running sync is complete.

    For indexes with automatic maintenance, instead of running sync in the foreground, this API waits for any background sync event to finish and returns after the sync is complete. The background CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX operation performs the following steps in an order:
    1. Resets all events (waiting for retry) for an index or index partition.

    2. Waits for the background maintenance to finish, and performs SYNC-Mapping (Sync-M) in the foreground.

    3. Posts the Scheduler process to start processing pending events in the background.

    4. Waits for any background process to complete if the locking parameter is set to CTX_DDL.LOCK_WAIT. For all other locking parameter values, returns after completing Sync-M.

      The values of the memory, parallel_degree, maxtime, and direct_path parameters are ignored.

      If some background events are delayed or cannot complete, CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX returns ORA-30608 and logs an error message in the CTX_USER_BACKGROUND_EVENTS, CTX_BACKGROUND_EVENTS, and V$TEXT_WAITING_EVENTS views.

    For detailed information about these steps, see Oracle Text Application Developer's Guide.

  • You can run CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX and CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX at the same time. You can also run CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX and CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX with parallelism at the same time. However, you should not run CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX with parallelism at the same time as CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX, nor CTX_DDL.SYNC_INDEX with parallelism at the same time as CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX with parallelism. If you should run one of these combinations, no error is generated; however, one operation will wait until the other is done.

  • For indexes with a staging table ($G), SYNC_INDEX automatically merges data back from the staging table to the permanent index table ($I) when the threshold of rows inserted into the staging table exceeds the value of the STAGE_ITAB_MAX_ROWS setting and the STAGE_ITAB_MAX_ROWS is set to a value different than zero. The merge process uses a degree of parallelism of 4. Therefore, there is no need to explicitly run CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX in MERGE mode or to manually schedule a background job doing the same.

    If you want to submit a user-owned DBMS_SCHEDULER background job to run CTX_DDL.OPTIMIZE_INDEX in MERGE mode, then you must explicitly set the STAGE_ITAB_MAX_ROWS attribute to 0. This turns off the automatic merge process that occurs during SYNC_INDEX. The user-submitted background job then periodically merges rows from $G to $I.

  • You can set STAGE_ITAB_AUTO_OPT to enable automatic optimize merge. This setting automatically merges rows from $G to $I in the background.

    When STAGE_ITAB_MAX_ROWS is set to a value greater than 0 and the automatic optimize merge is not enabled using STAGE_ITAB_AUTO_OPT, some SYNC operations may take an unexpectedly long time to complete due to the merging of rows from $G to $I.

  • You cannot run DDL ALTER TABLE .. MODIFY concurrently with an index synchronization or index maintenance operation, such as SYNC_INDEX.

  • You cannot sync or optimize an index that is owned by a different schema. Doing so results in the "DRG-10016: You must be the owner to modify this object" error.

Related Topics

8.52 UNSET_ATTRIBUTE

Removes a set attribute from a preference.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.UNSET_ATTRIBUTE(preference_name varchar2,
                        attribute_name  varchar2);
preference_name

Specify the name of the preference.

attribute_name

Specify the name of the attribute.

Example

Enabling/Disabling Alternate Spelling

The following example shows how you can enable alternate spelling for German and disable alternate spelling with CTX_DDL.UNSET_ATTRIBUTE:

begin
ctx_ddl.create_preference('GERMAN_LEX', 'BASIC_LEXER');
ctx_ddl.set_attribute('GERMAN_LEX', 'ALTERNATE_SPELLING', 'GERMAN');
end;

To disable alternate spelling, use the CTX_DDL.UNSET_ATTRIBUTE procedure as follows:

begin
ctx_ddl.unset_attribute('GERMAN_LEX', 'ALTERNATE_SPELLING');
end;

Related Topics

"SET_ATTRIBUTE "

8.53 UNSET_SEC_GRP_ATTR

Removes a section group-specific attribute.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.UNSET_SEC_GRP_ATTR(group_name varchar2,
                        attribute_name  varchar2);
group_name

Specify the name of the section group.

attribute_name

Specify the name of the attribute.

Related Topics

"UNSET_ATTRIBUTE "

8.54 UPDATE_SUB_LEXER

Updates a sub-lexer and modifies its multi-lexer preference, language, or sub-lexer. You can also update default sub-lexers using this procedure. This procedure can be used in conjunction with the CTX_DDL.PREFERENCE_IMPLICIT_COMMIT variable.

See Also:

"PREFERENCE_IMPLICIT_COMMIT" for information about setting this variable

Syntax

UPDATE_SUB_LEXER (
      lexer_name     IN   VARCHAR2,
      language       IN   VARCHAR2,
      sub_lexer      IN   VARCHAR2
);
lexer_name

Specify the name of the multi-lexer preference that needs to be updated.

language

Specify the language name of the sub-lexer. Use DEFAULT for the default sub-lexers.

See ""language"" for information on how to specify the globalization support language name or abbreviation of the sub-lexer.

sub_lexer

Specify the name of the sub-lexer to use for this language.

Related Topics

"ADD_SUB_LEXER "

"REMOVE_SUB_LEXER"

8.55 UPDATE_POLICY

Updates a policy created with CREATE_POLICY. Replaces the preferences of the policy. Null arguments are not replaced.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.UPDATE_POLICY(
         policy_name     IN VARCHAR2,
         filter          IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
         section_group   IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
         lexer           IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
         stoplist        IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
         wordlist        IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL);
policy_name

Specify the name of the policy to update.

filter

Specify the filter preference to use.

section_group

Specify the section group to use.

lexer

Specify the lexer preference to use.

stoplist

Specify the stoplist to use.

wordlist

Specify the wordlist to use.

8.56 UPDATE_SDATA

UPDATE_SDATA is an index API that modifies the specified SDATA values in the index. This API does not store or modify column values in a base table, where the base table column may have been used as an SDATA section.

Note:

The UPDATE_SDATA API in Oracle Text is deprecated in Oracle Database 23ai.

Instead of modifying the index, Oracle recommends that you update the underlying data.

Export/import operations rebuild the index from the base table using the specified preferences. Since modifications made using the UPDATE_SDATA API are not present in the base table, the export/import operation does not preserve these changes.

UPDATE_SDATA modifies temporary metadata it adds in the index table, not the base table. It cannot be used to directly add metadata. For export/import of metadata that is persistent, create a base table column that contains the metadata values. You can then update the metadata through the column in the base table.

UPDATE_SDATA truncates data which is larger than 249 bytes.

Syntax

CTX_DDL.UPDATE_SDATA(
         idx_name     IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
         section_name IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
         sdata_value  IN sys.anydata,
         sdata_rowid  IN rowid,
         part_name    IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL);
idx_name

Specify the name of the index.

section_name

Specify the name of the SDATA section.

sdata_value

Specify the new SDATA value.

sdata_rowid

Specify the rowid for which the SDATA value needs to be updated.

part_name

Specify the name of the locally partitioned index, if applicable. Specify NULL for the global index.

Related Topics

"SDATA"

"ADD_SDATA_COLUMN"

"ADD_SDATA_SECTION"

See Also:

Chapter 8, "Searching Document Sections in Oracle Text" in Oracle Text Application Developer's Guide