RE: Is table with b-tree index is still a heap table?

re: normally you want your tables to be heap tables

On page 379 of Effective Oracle by Design, Tom Kyte quotes Steve Adams as saying: “If a schema has no IOTs or clusters, that is a good indication that no thought has been given to the matter of optimizing data access.”

But IOTs and clusters would not be useful if the PKs are artificial keys (e.g. sequence numbers) instead of natural keys (typically composite) since the goal is a clustering effect.

P.S. Every SQL Server table that has a PK automatically becomes an IOT (i.e. a "clustered index" in SQL Server terminology) which explains why the OT wondered whether the same was true of Oracle Database.

Iggy

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Iggy Fernandez
Email: iggy_fernandez_at_hotmail.com
Cellphone: (925) 478 3161
Blog: So Many Manuals So Little Time
Author of Beginning Oracle Database 11g Administration
Editor of the NoCOUG Journal
Lecturer at University of Washington Professional and Continuing Education


________________________________
> From: mark.powell2_at_hp.com 
> To: oracle-l_at_freelists.org 
> Subject: RE: Is table with b-tree index is still a heap table? 
> Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2014 19:56:39 +0000 
> 
> 
> Nik, I agree with Hemant in that normally you want your tables to be 
> heap tables. Most tables should have a PK constraint defined on them 		 	   		  --