how to make selecting random rows in oracle faster with table with millions of rows

Question

Hi,

Is there a way to make selecting random rows faster in oracle with a table that has million of rows. I tried to use sample(x) and dbms_random.value and its taking a long time to run.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Using appropriate values of sample(x) is the fastest way you can. It's block-random and row-random within blocks, so if you only want one random row:

select dbms_rowid.rowid_relative_fno(rowid) as fileno,
       dbms_rowid.rowid_block_number(rowid) as blockno,
       dbms_rowid.rowid_row_number(rowid) as offset
  from (select rowid from [my_big_table] sample (.01))
 where rownum = 1

I'm using a subpartitioned table, and I'm getting pretty good randomness even grabbing multiple rows:

select dbms_rowid.rowid_relative_fno(rowid) as fileno,
       dbms_rowid.rowid_block_number(rowid) as blockno,
       dbms_rowid.rowid_row_number(rowid) as offset
  from (select rowid from [my_big_table] sample (.01))
 where rownum <= 5

    FILENO    BLOCKNO     OFFSET
---------- ---------- ----------
       152    2454936         11
       152    2463140         32
       152    2335208          2
       152    2429207         23
       152    2746125         28

I suspect you should probably tune your SAMPLE clause to use an appropriate sample size for what you're fetching.

Answer 2

Start with Adam's answer first, but if SAMPLE just isn't fast enough, even with the ROWNUM optimization, you can use block samples:

....FROM [table] SAMPLE BLOCK (0.01)

This applies the sampling at the block level instead of for each row. This does mean that it can skip large swathes of data from the table so the sample percent will be very rough. It's not unusual for a SAMPLE BLOCK with a low percentage to return zero rows.

Answer 3

Here's the same question on AskTom:

http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:6075151195522

If you know how big your table is, use sample block as described above. If you don't, you can modify the routine below to get however many rows you want.

Copied from: http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:6075151195522#56174726207861

create or replace function get_random_rowid
( table_name varchar2
) return urowid
as
sql_v varchar2(100);
urowid_t dbms_sql.urowid_table;
cursor_v integer;
status_v integer;
rows_v integer;
begin
  for exp_v in -6..2 loop
    exit when (urowid_t.count > 0);
    if (exp_v < 2) then
      sql_v := 'select rowid from ' || table_name
      || ' sample block (' || power(10, exp_v) || ')';
    else
      sql_v := 'select rowid from ' || table_name;
    end if;
    cursor_v := dbms_sql.open_cursor;
    dbms_sql.parse(cursor_v, sql_v, dbms_sql.native);
    dbms_sql.define_array(cursor_v, 1, urowid_t, 100, 0);
    status_v := dbms_sql.execute(cursor_v);
    loop
      rows_v := dbms_sql.fetch_rows(cursor_v);
      dbms_sql.column_value(cursor_v, 1, urowid_t);
      exit when rows_v != 100;
    end loop;
    dbms_sql.close_cursor(cursor_v);
  end loop;
  if (urowid_t.count > 0) then
    return urowid_t(trunc(dbms_random.value(0, urowid_t.count)));
  end if;
  return null;
exception when others then
  if (dbms_sql.is_open(cursor_v)) then
    dbms_sql.close_cursor(cursor_v);
  end if;
  raise;
end;
/
show errors