Segment

From Oracle FAQ
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A segment is a database object that has space allocated to it - for example, a table, index, materialized view, etc. A segment consists of one or more extents allocated within a tablespace.

Segment types

Some of the available segment types are:

  • CLUSTER
  • INDEX
  • INDEX PARTITION
  • LOB PARTITION
  • LOBINDEX
  • LOBSEGMENT
  • NESTED TABLE
  • ROLLBACK
  • TABLE
  • TABLE PARTITION
  • TYPE2 UNDO

Segment headers

The segment header is stored in the first block of the first extent. It contains:

List segments

Catalog views: USER_SEGMENTS and DBA_SEGMENTS show segment information. Note there is no ALL_SEGMENTS view. Example:

SELECT segment_name, segment_type, tablespace_name, extents
  FROM user_segments;

SEGMENT_NAME SEGMENT_TYPE TABLESPACE_NAME    EXTENTS
------------ ------------ --------------- ----------
DEPT         TABLE        USERS                    1
PK_DEPT      INDEX        USERS                    1
EMP          TABLE        USERS                    1
PK_EMP       INDEX        USERS                    1
BONUS        TABLE        USERS                    1
SALGRADE     TABLE        USERS                    1

6 rows selected.

Also see

  • Extent - contiguous set of data blocks allocated to a segment
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