Re: ORA01467: sort key too long error

One of the reasons for large sort keys can be poor application design and/or poor query design. For example, if you find yourself having to use SELECT DISTINCT with a large number of columns. It may be (relationally) possible to recast the query in such a way as to avoid the problem. To take a trivial example, you may find that the query is something like:

select distinct d.name
from dept d, emp e
where e.deptno = d.deptno

The query above uses a sort distinct, whereas:

select d.name
from dept d
where exists (
select 1 from emp e
where e.deptno = d.deptno
)

doesn't need to have a sort.

Obviously your sort key is much more than a single column - but the same principal may apply

HTH Nigel

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