Oracle Database 23ai - New Features for DBAs

By Gowthami | apps-dba.com | Oracle Database Series

Oracle Database 23ai (formerly known as Oracle Database 23c) is Oracle's latest long-term support release, bringing a significant leap forward with native AI integration directly into the database engine. This post covers the key new features that every Oracle DBA should know about.

Key Insight: Oracle 23ai introduces AI-native capabilities including Vector Search, JSON Relational Duality Views, and True Cache—fundamentally changing how DBAs design and query databases.

AI Vector Search

One of the most significant additions in Oracle 23ai is AI Vector Search. This feature allows the database to store, index, and query vector embeddings natively, enabling semantic similarity searches alongside traditional SQL queries. The new VECTOR data type stores high-dimensional embeddings.

-- Create a table with a vector column
CREATE TABLE documents (
  id      NUMBER PRIMARY KEY,
  content CLOB,
  embedding VECTOR(1536, FLOAT32)
);

-- Similarity search using cosine distance
SELECT content
FROM documents
ORDER BY VECTOR_DISTANCE(embedding, :query_vec, COSINE)
FETCH FIRST 5 ROWS ONLY;

Schema Privileges with SQL Domains

Oracle 23ai introduces SQL Domains, a new schema-level object for centralizing column constraints and properties. DBAs can define a domain once and reuse it across many tables, improving consistency and maintainability.

-- Define a reusable domain
CREATE DOMAIN email_address AS VARCHAR2(255)
  CONSTRAINT email_check CHECK (REGEXP_LIKE(VALUE, '^[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+.[A-Za-z]{2,}$'));

-- Apply domain to a column
CREATE TABLE employees (
  emp_id NUMBER PRIMARY KEY,
  email  email_address
);

JSON Relational Duality Views

A game-changing feature: JSON Relational Duality Views let you expose relational tables as JSON documents and vice versa with full read/write support. This bridges the gap between relational and document-oriented data models.

-- Create a duality view over relational tables
CREATE JSON RELATIONAL DUALITY VIEW emp_dv AS
  SELECT JSON {
    'emp_id'   : e.emp_id,
    'name'     : e.last_name,
    'dept'     : d.dept_name
  }
  FROM employees e
  JOIN departments d ON e.dept_id = d.dept_id
  WITH INSERT UPDATE DELETE;

True Cache for Read Offloading

True Cache is a read-only cache of the primary database that offloads read workloads without requiring application changes. Unlike Oracle GoldenGate replicas, True Cache stays synchronized using redo logs, providing transparent performance improvements.

Developer-Friendly Features

• IF [NOT] EXISTS for DDL: CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS simplifies deployment scripts
• Table Value Constructors: Insert multiple rows cleanly and efficiently
• Annotations: Attach metadata to schema objects for better documentation
• Property Graph: Graph queries using SQL/PGQ standard

Summary

Oracle 23ai brings AI-native capabilities, developer ergonomics, and architectural innovations that every DBA should understand. From Vector Search to Duality Views, these features change how you design and query databases, making it essential to stay current with this latest release.

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