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Verifying the last UPDATE STATISTICS executed with data distribution for a table using SQL

Question & Answer


Question

How can you use a SQL statement to find out the latest UPDATE STATISTICS HIGH and UPDATE STATISTICS MEDIUM commands that were run on a table?

Answer


INTRODUCTION

You can use a SQL statement to obtain information regarding each of the most recent UPDATE STATISTICS HIGH and UPDATE STATISTICS MEDIUM commands that ran against a table.

The type of information you can obtain from the most recent update statistics is the following:

  • The date on which it ran
  • The mode used (high or medium)
  • The column(s) it ran against
  • The resolution used
  • The confidence level used


STEPS

You can run this SELECT statement from any application:

    SELECT UNIQUE tabname,colname,constructed,mode,
           resolution,confidence
    FROM  systables t, syscolumns c, sysdistrib d
    WHERE d.tabid = c.tabid  AND d.colno = c.colno AND
           d.tabid = t.tabid AND
           t.tabname='tablename'
    ORDER BY 1,2;

    tablename
      The name of the table you want the distribution information for.


The SELECT statement will output columns. The following table indicates their meaning:

Column
Description
tabname
The name of the table
colname
The name of the particular column in the table that the distribution had ran.
constructed
The date when the UPDATE STATISTICS statement had ran. (The date of construction of the data distribution.)
mode
What mode the UPDATE STATISTICS used.

H = HIGH
M = MEDIUM

There will never be an L because UPDATE STATISTICS LOW does not construct a data distribution.
resolution
The resolution used by the UPDATE STATISTICS statement
confidence
The confidence level used by the UPDATE STATISTICS statement

    Note: The confidence level for distributions run in high mode is irrelevant so it should always be set to zero.

Example:

This example shows that UPDATE STATISTICS was last run on 8 July 2003. The column named code of the table named state had its distribution updated in High mode. It used a resolution of .5. The mode was high so there is no confidence level.

The column named sname in the same table had its distribution built in medium mode. It used a resolution of 2.5 and a confidence level of approximately 0.95.

    tabname      state
    colname      code
    constructed  07/08/2003
    mode         H
    resolution   0.5
    confidence   0.00

    tabname      state
    colname      sname
    constructed  07/08/2003
    mode         M
    resolution   2.500000000000
    confidence   0.94999999

You can also find this information from the UNIX or Windows command line using the dbschema utility (see Related Information section).


COMMON PROBLEMS

Symptom: You run the SELECT previously mentioned and you see this message 
    No rows found is returned.


Resolution: It means the table does not have data distribution. You can run the UPDATE STATISTICS command for the table to generate the data distribution.
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Document Information

More support for:
Informix Servers

Software version:
10.0, 11.1, 7.3, 9.4, 11.5

Operating system(s):
AIX, DYNIX/ptx, HP-UX, IRIX, Linux, Reliant UNIX, Solaris, Windows

Document number:
335493

Modified date:
03 June 2021

UID

swg21154913

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