Updating Millions of Records Oracle - sql

Question

I have created one query to update the 35 million records column,
but unfortunately, it took around more than one hour to process.
did I miss anything on the below query?
DECLARE
CURSOR exp_cur IS
SELECT
DECODE(
COLUMN_NAME,
NULL, NULL,
standard_hash(COLUMN_NAME)
) AS COLUMN_NAME
FROM TABLE1;
TYPE nt_fName IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(100);
fname nt_fName;
BEGIN
OPEN exp_cur;
FETCH exp_cur BULK COLLECT INTO fname LIMIT 1000000;
CLOSE exp_cur;
--Print data
FOR idx IN 1 .. fname.COUNT
LOOP
UPDATE TABLE1 SET COLUMN_NAME=fname(idx);
commit;
DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE (idx||' '||fname(idx) );
END LOOP;
END;

Answer 1

The reason why bulk collect used with a forall construction is generally faster than the equivalent row-by-row loop is because it applies all the updates in one shot, instead of laboriously stepping though the rows one at a time and launching 35 million separate update statements, each one requiring the database to search for the individual row before updating it. But what you have written (even when the bugs are fixed) is still a row-by-row loop with 35 million search and update statements, plus the additional overhead of populating a 700 MB array in memory, 35 million commits, and 35 million dbms_output messages. It has to be slower because it has significantly more work to do than a plain update.
If it is practical to copy the data to a new table, insert will be a lot faster than update. At the end you can reapply any grants, indexes and constraints to the new table, rename both tables and drop the old one. You can also insert /*+ parallel enable_parallel_dml */ (or prior to Oracle 12c, you have to alter session enable parallel dml separately.) You could define the new table as nologging during the copy, but check with your DBA as that can affect replication and backups, though that might not matter if this is a test system. This will all need careful scripting if it's going to form part of a routine workflow.

Answer 2

Your code is updating all records of TABLE1 in each loop. (It loops 35 million times and in each loop updating 35 million records, That's why it is taking time)
You can simply use a single update statement as follows:
UPDATE TABLE1 SET COLUMN_NAME = standard_hash(COLUMN_NAME)
WHERE COLUMN_NAME IS NOT NULL;
So, If you want to use the BULK COLLECT and FORALL then you can use it as follows:
DECLARE
CURSOR EXP_CUR IS
SELECT COLUMN_NAME FROM TABLE1
WHERE COLUMN_NAME IS NOT NULL;
TYPE NT_FNAME IS TABLE OF VARCHAR2(100);
FNAME NT_FNAME;
BEGIN
OPEN EXP_CUR;
FETCH EXP_CUR BULK COLLECT INTO FNAME LIMIT 1000000;
FORALL IDX IN FNAME.FIRST..FNAME.LAST
UPDATE TABLE1
SET COLUMN_NAME = STANDARD_HASH(COLUMN_NAME)
WHERE COLUMN_NAME = FNAME(IDX);
COMMIT;
CLOSE EXP_CUR;
END;
/