SQL "select count" is slow

• Article Type: General
• Product: Aleph
• Product Version: 20

Problem Symptoms:
SQL "select count" on certain Aleph tables takes minutes to run (-- rather than the expected seconds).

Cause:
If the underlaying table has not been recreated in many years and the main Oracle index (such as, z30_id, z01_id, etc.) has, likewise, not been rebuilt in many years, and there have been many additions-to / deletions-from the table, the Oracle index can become fragmented. {util a/17/15 ("Analyze Index") is intended to show the degree of fragmentation of the index.}

Resolution:
Running util a/17/3 to recreate the Oracle indexes -- especially the znn_id index -- has been shown, at least in some cases, to *drastically* improve the response time on "select count".