Blocks

Oracle database data is stored in data blocks. One data block corresponds to a specific
number of bytes of physical database space on disk. (e.g. 1 block = 16 Kbytes)

Extents
An extent is a specific number of contiguous data blocks, obtained in a single allocation,
used to store a specific type of information. A small table may fit in a single extent, a
large table may require multiple extents.

Segments
The level of logical database storage above an extent is called a segment.
A segment is a set of extents allocated for a certain logical structure: Data /Index
/Rollback/ Temporary segment. The allocation of extents for a given segment is handled
different for Locally Managed Tablespaces and Dictionary Managed Tablespaces.

Extent deallocation
In general, the extents of a segment do not return to the tablespace until you drop the
schema object whose data is stored in the . Exceptions to this include the following:
_ The TRUNCATE...DROP STORAGE statement.
Rollback segments with the OPTIMAL size specified.
_ Manual deallocation using the following SQL syntax:
ALTER TABLE table_name DEALLOCATE UNUSED;

After you DROP a nonclustered table Oracle makes the extents available for other
schema objects in the same tablespace.

Block Sizes
The block size of the SYSTEM tablespace is termed the standard block size. This is set
when the database is created and can be any valid size.
Early versions of Oracle supported just one block size set at database creation, you can
now specify up to four nonstandard block sizes, in addition to a standard block size.

In the initialization file, you can configure subcaches within the buffer cache for each of
these block sizes. Subcaches can also be configured while an instance is running. You
can create tablespaces having any of these block sizes.

The standard block size is used for the system tablespace and most other tablespaces.
All partitions of a partitioned object must reside in tablespaces of a single block size.
Multiple block sizes are useful primarily when transporting a tablespace from an OLTP
database to an enterprise data warehouse.

"Ever notice that the area of a department store containing completely useless objects
is called 'gifts?' - Anon

See also
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