Oracle 21c — Comparing Explain Plans Using the COMPARE_EXPLAIN Function

In Oracle 21c, a function named COMPARE_EXPLAIN was added to DBMS_XPLAN, which allows comparing the explain plans of two SQL statements. At the end of the report (in the "Comparison Results" section), the differences between the two plans are shown.

See the example below.

SQL> create table mytbl as select * from dba_objects;
Table created

SQL> create index ind1_object_id on mytbl(object_id);
Index created

SQL> explain plan  set statement_id = ‘Plan1’  for select /*+ full(mytbl) */ * from mytbl where object_id=9;

Explained

SQL> explain plan  set statement_id = ‘Plan2’ for select /*+ index(mytbl) */ * from mytbl where object_id=9;   

Explained

SQL> VARIABLE varvar1 varchar2(9000)

SQL> exec :varvar1 := dbms_xplan.compare_explain(‘Plan1′,’Plan2’);

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.


SQL> select :varvar1 from dual;

COMPARE PLANS REPORT

———————————————————————————————

  Current user           : USEF

  Total number of plans  : 2

  Number of findings     : 1

———————————————————————————————

COMPARISON DETAILS

———————————————————————————————

 Plan Number            : 1 (Reference Plan)

 Plan Found             : Yes

 Plan Source            : Plan Table

 Plan Table Owner       : USEF

 Plan Table Name        : PLAN_TABLE

 Statement ID           : Plan1

 Plan ID                : 13

 Plan Database Version  : 21.0.0.0

 Parsing Schema         : “USEF”

 SQL Text               : No SQL Text

Plan

—————————–

Plan Hash Value  : 659371492

———————————————————————-

| Id  | Operation           | Name  | Rows | Bytes | Cost | Time     |

———————————————————————-

|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT    |       |    1 |   142 |  428 | 00:00:01 |

| * 1 |   TABLE ACCESS FULL | MYTBL |    1 |   142 |  428 | 00:00:01 |

———————————————————————-

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):

——————————————

* 1 – filter(“OBJECT_ID”=9)

———————————————————————————————

 Plan Number            : 2

 Plan Found             : Yes

 Plan Source            : Plan Table

 Plan Table Owner       : USEF

 Plan Table Name        : PLAN_TABLE

 Statement ID           : Plan2

 Plan ID                : 14

 Plan Database Version  : 21.0.0.0

 Parsing Schema         : “USEF”

 SQL Text               : No SQL Text

Plan

—————————–

Plan Hash Value  : 2344436349

————————————————————————————————-

| Id  | Operation                             | Name           | Rows | Bytes | Cost | Time     |

————————————————————————————————-

|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT                      |                |    1 |   142 |    2 | 00:00:01 |

|   1 |   TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID BATCHED | MYTBL          |    1 |   142 |    2 | 00:00:01 |

| * 2 |    INDEX RANGE SCAN                   | IND1_OBJECT_ID |    1 |       |    1 | 00:00:01 |

————————————————————————————————-

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):

——————————————

* 2 – access(“OBJECT_ID”=9)

Comparison Results (1):

—————————–

Query block SEL$1, Alias “MYTBL”@”SEL$1”: Access path is different –
    reference plan: FULL (line: 1), current plan: INDEX_RS_ASC (lines: 1, 2).