I am writing a PL/SQL stored procedure which will be called from within a .NET application.
My stored procedure must return
- the count of values in a table of part revisions, based on an input part number,
- the name of the lowest revision level currently captured in this table for the input part number
the name of the revision level for a particular unit in the database associated with this part number and an input unit ID.
The unit's revision level name is captured within a separate table with no direct relationship to the part revision table.
Relevant data structure:
Table Part has columns:
Part_ID int PK
Part_Number varchar2(30)
Table Part_Revisions:
Revision_ID int PK
Revision_Name varchar2(100)
Revision_Level int
Part_ID int FK
Table Unit:
Unit_ID int PK
Part_ID int FK
Table Unit_Revision:
Unit_ID int PK
Revision_Name varchar2(100)
With that said, what is the most efficient way for me to query these three data elements into a ref cursor for output? I am considering the following option 1:
OPEN cursor o_Return_Cursor FOR
SELECT (SELECT COUNT (*)
FROM Part_Revisions pr
inner join PART pa on pa.part_id = pr.part_id
WHERE PA.PART_NO = :1 )
AS "Cnt_PN_Revisions",
(select pr1.Revision_Name from Part_Revisions pr1
inner join PART pa1 on pa1.part_id = pr1.part_id
WHERE PA.PART_NO = :1 and pr1.Revision_Level = 0)
AS "Input_Revison_Level",
(select ur.Revision_Name from Unit_Revision ur
WHERE ur.Unit_ID = :2) as "Unit_Revision"
FROM DUAL;
However, Toad's Explain Plan returns Cost:2 Cardinality: 1, which I suspect is due to me using DUAL in my main query. Comparing that to option 2:
select pr.Revision_Name, (select count(*)
from Part_Revisions pr1
where pr1.part_id = pr.part_id) as "Count",
(select ur.Revision_Name
from Unit_Revision ur
where ur.Unit_ID = :2) as "Unit_Revision"
from Part_Revisions pr
inner join PART pa on pa.part_id = pr.part_id
WHERE PA.PART_NO = :1 and pr.Revision_Level = 0
Essentially I don't really know how to compare the results from my execution plans, to chose the best design. I have also considered a version of option 1, where instead of joining twice to the Part table, I select the Part_ID into a local variable, and simply query the Part_Revisions table based on that value. However, this is not something I can use the Explain Plan to analyze.