very bad performance describe "package"

Raimund Kelterer

I just installed the newest version of SQL Developer / Data Modeler and SQLcl (18.3) and I was amazed by the pretty bad performance of desc(ribe)

"desc dbms_job" ran 50 seconds within SQL Developer ind SQLcl. "information dbms_job" is showing the result quite immediatly - the result is not very readable.

A crosscheck with sql*plus (11.2.0.3.0) showed the "desc dbms_job" result immediatly.

The database version is "12.1.0.1.0 - 64bit".

Why is there so much difference in running describe vs. information ?

Hari Sankar

Yes SQL Developer  version 18.1.0 took around 16 sec but same in version 3.0.04 took 0.5 sec..

You can use older version or putty to get result quick and format is also good

Glen Conway

To see the difference between INFO vs DESC, just look at the actual SQL getting executed in View -> Log -> Statements.  And do not be so quick to assume there is a huge performance difference between the two commands.  Try closing SQL Developer, opening it again, and re-executing the commands. INFO was still a bit faster for me, but both ran in under 1 second against a local 11g XE database.

Glen Conway

That is, having the database warmed up and something already in the database cache makes a big difference.

Suresh Sangaran-Oracle

SQL Dev/Data Modeler/SQLcl all uses JDBC for their DB connection and the way of working is different when compared with SQL*plus.

Few known issues that possibly fixed the issue has described in below articles you can try.

Describes Of Dictionary And Fixed Objects Very Slow Using SQL Developer Against 12c Database (Doc ID 2147939.1)

How To Troubleshoot Slow Performance From DESC Command In SQL Developer (Doc ID 2410577.1)