C Installing Oracle Expression Filter

Expression Filter provides a SQL schema and PL/SQL and Java packages that are used to store, retrieve, update, and query collections of expressions in an Oracle database.

Expression Filter is installed automatically with Oracle Database 10g Standard Edition and Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition. It is supplied as a set of PL/SQL packages, a Java package, a set of dictionary tables, and catalog views. All these objects are created in a dedicated schema named EXFSYS.

The script to install the Expression Filter is named catexf.sql and is found in the $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/directory. This script should be executed from a SQL*Plus session while connected as SYSDBA. Expression Filter can be uninstalled using the catnoexf.sql script in the same directory.

The Expression Filter functionality is the same in the Standard and Enterprise Editions. Support for indexing expressions is available only in the Enterprise Edition because it requires bitmap index support.

During installation of the Oracle database, a demonstration script is installed for the Expression Filter feature. The script exfdemo.sql is located in the $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/demo/ directory.