Every row in every table has a physical address. The address of a row is determined from a combination of the following:
∑ Datafile number
∑ Block number
∑ Location of the row within the block
∑ Object number
You can display the address of a row in a table by querying the ROWID pseudo-columnófor example:
SQL> select rowid, emp_id from emp;
Hereís some sample output:
ROWID EMP_ID
AAAFWXAAFAAAAlWAAA 1
The ROWID pseudo-column value isnít physically stored in the database. Oracle calculates its value when
you query it. The ROWID contents are displayed as base-64 values that can contain the characters AñZ, añ z, 0ñ9, +, and /. You can translate the ROWID value into meaningful information via the DBMS_ROWID
package. For example,to display the file number, block number, and row number in which a row is stored,issue this statement:
select emp_id ,
dbms_rowid.rowid_relative_fno(rowid) file_num ,
dbms_rowid.rowid_block_number(rowid) block_num
,dbms_rowid.rowid_row_number(rowid) row_num
from emp;
Hereís some sample output:
EMP_ID FILE_NUM BLOCK_NUM ROW_NUM
———- ———- ———- ———-
2960 4 144 126
2961 4 144 127
You can use the ROWID value in the SELECT and WHERE clauses of a SQL statement. In most cases, the
ROWID uniquely identifies a row. However, itís possible to have rows in different tables that are stored in
the same cluster and so contain rows with the same ROWID.
