TABLE ACCESS FULL
Short Description
Retrieves all rows in the table.
Detailed Description​
Full table scans (FTS) are generally seen as a bad thing because the whole table is scanned into memory meaning lots of disk access, however the the access method uses sequential reads, many blocks at a time. This is the fastest way to read from disk. Whilst you should seek to try and remove FTS, make sure that you improve the query by doing so. The place you least want to see TABLE ACCESS FULL is on the inside of a NESTED LOOP where the inner table is scanned for each row in the outer.
Further Reading​
- Oracle Magazine - How to read an execution plan
- Oracle Tuning Guide - Explaining and Displaying Execution Plans
- Oracle Tuning Guide - Comparing Execution Plans Tutorial
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