Different sql id, different force matching signature, different rows processed with the same plan hash value

Very recently, two interesting blog articles, here and here, have been published to emphasize the possibility of having a same plan hash value for actually two different execution plans.

Since then, I started opening my eyes for any plan hash value that is shown for two or more execution plans. That’s way, the last week, when I was modeling an example for an outer join in response to a question that came up in the French forum, I was immediately attracted by the following sql I have engineered:

SQL> select
2             d.deptno
3            ,d.dname
4            ,e.hiredate
5      from
6            dept d, emp e
7      where
8            d.deptno = e.deptno(+)
9      AND EXISTS
10                 ( SELECT  NULL
11                   FROM    emp e2
12                   WHERE   e.deptno    = e2.deptno
13                   HAVING  MAX(e2.hiredate) = e.hiredate
14                  -- or e.hiredate is null
15                   )
16       ;

DEPTNO DNAME      HIREDATE
------ ---------- ---------
20    RESEARCH    12/01/83
30    SALES       03/12/81
10    ACCOUNTING  23/01/82

Plan hash value: 2339135578  --> note this plan hash value

PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation            | Name | Starts | E-Rows | A-Rows |   A-Time   |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT     |      |      1 |        |      3 |00:00:00.01 |
|*  1 |  FILTER              |      |      1 |        |      3 |00:00:00.01 |
|*  2 |   HASH JOIN OUTER    |      |      1 |     14 |     15 |00:00:00.01 |
|   3 |    TABLE ACCESS FULL | DEPT |      1 |      4 |      4 |00:00:00.01 |
|   4 |    TABLE ACCESS FULL | EMP  |      1 |     14 |     14 |00:00:00.01 |
|*  5 |   FILTER             |      |     15 |        |      3 |00:00:00.01 |
|   6 |    SORT AGGREGATE    |      |     15 |      1 |     15 |00:00:00.01 |
|*  7 |     TABLE ACCESS FULL| EMP  |     15 |      5 |     70 |00:00:00.01 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
1 - filter( IS NOT NULL)
2 - access("D"."DEPTNO"="E"."DEPTNO")
5 - filter(MAX("E2"."HIREDATE")=:B1) --> note this crucial point here
7 - filter("E2"."DEPTNO"=:B1)

And to this a little bit different sql:

SQL> select
2             d.deptno
3            ,d.dname
4            ,e.hiredate
5      from
6            dept d, emp e
7      where
8            d.deptno = e.deptno(+)
9      AND EXISTS
10            ( SELECT  NULL
11              FROM    emp e2
12              WHERE   e.deptno    = e2.deptno
13              HAVING  MAX(e2.hiredate) = e.hiredate
14              or e.hiredate is null  --> this part has been uncommented
15             )
16       ;

DEPTNO DNAME          HIREDATE
---------- -------------- --------
20 RESEARCH       12/01/83
30 SALES          03/12/81
10 ACCOUNTING     23/01/82
40 OPERATIONS

Plan hash value: 2339135578  --> the same plan hash value
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation            | Name | Starts | E-Rows | A-Rows |   A-Time   |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT     |      |      1 |        |      4 |00:00:00.01 |
|*  1 |  FILTER              |      |      1 |        |      4 |00:00:00.01 |
|*  2 |   HASH JOIN OUTER    |      |      1 |     14 |     15 |00:00:00.01 |
|   3 |    TABLE ACCESS FULL | DEPT |      1 |      4 |      4 |00:00:00.01 |
|   4 |    TABLE ACCESS FULL | EMP  |      1 |     14 |     14 |00:00:00.01 |
|*  5 |   FILTER             |      |     15 |        |      4 |00:00:00.01 |
|   6 |    SORT AGGREGATE    |      |     15 |      1 |     15 |00:00:00.01 |
|*  7 |     TABLE ACCESS FULL| EMP  |     15 |      5 |     70 |00:00:00.01 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
1 - filter( IS NOT NULL)
2 - access("D"."DEPTNO"="E"."DEPTNO")
5 - filter((MAX("E2"."HIREDATE")=:B1 OR :B2 IS NULL)) --> for a different predicate
7 - filter("E2"."DEPTNO"=:B1)

Well, nothing new per regard to the two related blog articles mentioned above.  However it is worth pointing out how two different sql_id with two different force matching signature and producing two different result sets, could end up sharing the same plan hash value of two execution plans differencing by their predicate part as shown below:

select
  sql_id
 ,child_number
 ,force_matching_signature
 ,rows_processed
 ,plan_hash_value
from
v$sql
where sql_text like '%MAX(e2.hiredate)%'
and   sql_text not like '%v$sql%';

SQL_ID        CHILD_NUMBER FORCE_MATCHING_SIGNATURE ROWS_PROCESSED PLAN_HASH_VALUE
------------- ------------ ------------------------ -------------- ---------------
ba39fv7txcsbk            0 6256287308517838235              4      2339135578
b2kggnvz02ctk            0 1563627505656661161              3      2339135578

In this context of plan hash value inspection, Carlos sierra from the Oracle support published a blog article showing that his sqltxplain tool has the ability to consider execution plan using not only the plan hash value but two additional pieces of information which are SQLT Plan Hash Value1 and SQLT Plan Hash Value2. The last information is related to the predicate part which is here the central point of difference between “my” two execution plans.

Well, why not try sqltxtract for this case using sql_id ba39fv7txcsbk (click on the picture to enlarge it)?

Spot how the sqltxtract module shows the presence of two execution plans having the same plan hash value (2339135578) but different plan hash value2(62199 and 22135). This plan hash value2 concerns a difference into the access and/or the filter predicates.

But wait, this doesn’t mean that the sql_id ba39fv7txcsbk has necessarily got two different execution plans. All what it clearly indicates is that the plan hash value of this parent sql_id has been seen two times, each time with a different access and/or filter predicates. This is confirmed by the sql scripts given by Carlos sierra which when applied to this particular case gives this:

SQL> start c:\psql_id
Enter value for sql_id: ba39fv7txcsbk

no rows selected

Meaning that this sql_id has not got a difference in the predicate part of its execution plan.

SQL> start c:\phash

Enter value for plan_hash_value: 2339135578

ID  TYPE     SQL_ID         CHILD_NUMBER  PREDICATES
---- -------- -------------- ------------- ------------------------------------------
5   filter  ba39fv7txcsbk    0             (MAX("E2"."HIREDATE")=:B1 OR :B2 IS NULL)
5   filter  b2kggnvz02ctk    0              MAX("E2"."HIREDATE")=:B1

Meaning that this plan_hash_value has got two execution plans having two different predicate parts for two different sql_ids