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ANY_VALUE Aggregate Function in Oracle Database 21c

The ANY_VALUE function allows us to safely drop columns out of a GROUP BY clause to reduce any performance overhead.

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Setup

The examples in this article require the following tables to be present.

-- drop table emp purge;
-- drop table dept purge;

create table dept (
  deptno number(2) constraint pk_dept primary key,
  dname varchar2(14),
  loc varchar2(13)
) ;

create table emp (
  empno number(4) constraint pk_emp primary key,
  ename varchar2(10),
  job varchar2(9),
  mgr number(4),
  hiredate date,
  sal number(7,2),
  comm number(7,2),
  deptno number(2) constraint fk_deptno references dept
);

insert into dept values (10,'ACCOUNTING','NEW YORK');
insert into dept values (20,'RESEARCH','DALLAS');
insert into dept values (30,'SALES','CHICAGO');
insert into dept values (40,'OPERATIONS','BOSTON');

insert into emp values (7369,'SMITH','CLERK',7902,to_date('17-12-1980','dd-mm-yyyy'),800,null,20);
insert into emp values (7499,'ALLEN','SALESMAN',7698,to_date('20-2-1981','dd-mm-yyyy'),1600,300,30);
insert into emp values (7521,'WARD','SALESMAN',7698,to_date('22-2-1981','dd-mm-yyyy'),1250,500,30);
insert into emp values (7566,'JONES','MANAGER',7839,to_date('2-4-1981','dd-mm-yyyy'),2975,null,20);
insert into emp values (7654,'MARTIN','SALESMAN',7698,to_date('28-9-1981','dd-mm-yyyy'),1250,1400,30);
insert into emp values (7698,'BLAKE','MANAGER',7839,to_date('1-5-1981','dd-mm-yyyy'),2850,null,30);
insert into emp values (7782,'CLARK','MANAGER',7839,to_date('9-6-1981','dd-mm-yyyy'),2450,null,10);
insert into emp values (7788,'SCOTT','ANALYST',7566,to_date('13-JUL-87','dd-mm-rr')-85,3000,null,20);
insert into emp values (7839,'KING','PRESIDENT',null,to_date('17-11-1981','dd-mm-yyyy'),5000,null,10);
insert into emp values (7844,'TURNER','SALESMAN',7698,to_date('8-9-1981','dd-mm-yyyy'),1500,0,30);
insert into emp values (7876,'ADAMS','CLERK',7788,to_date('13-JUL-87', 'dd-mm-rr')-51,1100,null,20);
insert into emp values (7900,'JAMES','CLERK',7698,to_date('3-12-1981','dd-mm-yyyy'),950,null,30);
insert into emp values (7902,'FORD','ANALYST',7566,to_date('3-12-1981','dd-mm-yyyy'),3000,null,20);
insert into emp values (7934,'MILLER','CLERK',7782,to_date('23-1-1982','dd-mm-yyyy'),1300,null,10);
commit;

The Problem

We want to return a list of departments with a count of the number of employees in the department, so we use the COUNT aggregate function and a GROUP BY clause.

select d.deptno,
       d.dname,
       count(e.empno) as employee_count
from   dept d
       left outer join  emp e on d.deptno = e.deptno
group by d.deptno, d.dname
order by 1;

    DEPTNO DNAME          EMPLOYEE_COUNT
---------- -------------- --------------
        10 ACCOUNTING                  3
        20 RESEARCH                    5
        30 SALES                       6
        40 OPERATIONS                  0

SQL>

We are forced to include all non-aggregate columns from the select list into the GROUP BY or we will get an error. In this case we don't really care about including the DNAME column in the GROUP BY, but we are forced to do so. Adding extra columns in the GROUP BY represents an overhead. To get around this, people will sometimes use the MIN or MAX functions.

select d.deptno,
       min(d.dname) as dname,
       count(e.empno) as employee_count
from   dept d
       left outer join  emp e on d.deptno = e.deptno
group by d.deptno
order by 1;

    DEPTNO DNAME          EMPLOYEE_COUNT
---------- -------------- --------------
        10 ACCOUNTING                  3
        20 RESEARCH                    5
        30 SALES                       6
        40 OPERATIONS                  0

SQL>


select d.deptno,
       max(d.dname) as dname,
       count(e.empno) as employee_count
from   dept d
       left outer join  emp e on d.deptno = e.deptno
group by d.deptno
order by 1;

    DEPTNO DNAME          EMPLOYEE_COUNT
---------- -------------- --------------
        10 ACCOUNTING                  3
        20 RESEARCH                    5
        30 SALES                       6
        40 OPERATIONS                  0

SQL>

This allows us to remove the DNAME column from the GROUP BY, but now we have additional work associated with the MIN and MAX functions, which is a new overhead.

ANY_VALUE : The Solution

Oracle 21c introduced the ANY_VALUE aggregate function to solve this problem. We use it in the same way we would use MIN or MAX, but it is optimized to reduce the overhead of the aggregate function. Rather than doing any type of comparison, ANY_VALUE just presents the first non-NULL value it finds.

select d.deptno,
       any_value(d.dname) as dname,
       count(e.empno) as employee_count
from   dept d
       left outer join  emp e on d.deptno = e.deptno
group by d.deptno
order by 1;

    DEPTNO DNAME          EMPLOYEE_COUNT
---------- -------------- --------------
        10 ACCOUNTING                  3
        20 RESEARCH                    5
        30 SALES                       6
        40 OPERATIONS                  0

SQL>

So now we can reduce the overhead of additional columns in the GROUP BY, without having to add the overhead of the MIN or MAX functions.

Considerations

For more information see:

Hope this helps. Regards Tim...

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