Values populated in DBA_TAB_MODIFICATIONS

Goal :
The goal is to explain why the view DBA_TAB_MODIFICATIONS  does sometimes have no values
even when the parameter STATISTICS_LEVEL  is set to TYPICAL and  the specific schema has been analyzed successful using the package DBMS_STATS.GATHER_SCHEMA_STATS.
In addition all the tables in that schema shows MONITORING=YES in the view dba_tables.


Fix:
The updates to the table *_tab_modifications are related to the volumne of updates for a table.
There is a need of approximatly 10% of datavolumn changes. Just only on single update of the row for example might not lead to fill the *_tab_modifications.

Example :

SQL>  create table test ( num  varchar2(32));
Table created.

Lets insert 100 rows to table test:

SQL>  begin
  2  for i in 1..100 loop
  3  insert into sys.test values (i);
  4  end loop;
  5  commit;
end;  6
  7  /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL> select count(*) from test;
  COUNT(*)
----------
       100

Gather stats for this table:

SQL> EXEC DBMS_STATS.GATHER_TABLE_STATS('SYS','TEST');
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL>  SELECT OWNER,TABLE_NAME,STALE_STATS,NUM_ROWS,BLOCKS,EMPTY_BLOCKS FROM DBA_TAB_STATISTICS where OWNER ='SYS' AND TABLE_NAME='TEST';
OWNER                          TABLE_NAME                     STA   NUM_ROWS
------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- ----------
    BLOCKS EMPTY_BLOCKS
---------- ------------
SYS                            TEST                           NO         100
         1            0

SQL>  select * from dba_tab_modifications where TABLE_OWNER='SYS' AND TABLE_NAME='TEST';

no rows selected

Now lets manually flush the modifications from SGA:

Note: The procedure DBMS_STATS.FLUSH_DATABASE_MONITORING_INFO flushes in-memory monitoring information for all tables in the dictionary.
Corresponding entries in the *_TAB_MODIFICATIONS, *_TAB_STATISTICS and *_IND_STATISTICS
views are updated immediately, without waiting for the Oracle database to flush them periodically (per default every 3 hours). This procedure is useful when you need up-to-date information in those views.

SQL> exec dbms_stats.flush_database_monitoring_info;
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL>  SELECT OWNER,TABLE_NAME,STALE_STATS,NUM_ROWS,BLOCKS,EMPTY_BLOCKS FROM DBA_TAB_STATISTICS where OWNER ='SYS' AND TABLE_NAME='TEST';
OWNER                          TABLE_NAME                     STA   NUM_ROWS
------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- ----------
    BLOCKS EMPTY_BLOCKS
---------- ------------
SYS                            TEST                           NO         100
         1            0

Now lets insert 1000 more values and check if it put entry in dba_tab_modifications:

SQL> begin
 for i in 1..1000 loop
  insert into sys.test values (i);
 end loop;
  commit;
 end;
  /
  2    3    4    5    6    7
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL> select count(*) from test;
  COUNT(*)
----------
      1100

SQL>  SELECT OWNER,TABLE_NAME,STALE_STATS,NUM_ROWS,BLOCKS,EMPTY_BLOCKS FROM DBA_TAB_STATISTICS where OWNER ='SYS' AND TABLE_NAME='TEST';
OWNER                          TABLE_NAME                     STA   NUM_ROWS
------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- ----------
    BLOCKS EMPTY_BLOCKS
---------- ------------
SYS                            TEST                           NO         100
         1            0
no rows selected

SQL>  select * from dba_tab_modifications where TABLE_OWNER='SYS' AND TABLE_NAME='TEST';
no rows selected

SQL>  SELECT OWNER,TABLE_NAME,STALE_STATS,NUM_ROWS,BLOCKS,EMPTY_BLOCKS FROM DBA_TAB_STATISTICS where OWNER ='SYS' AND TABLE_NAME='TEST';
OWNER                          TABLE_NAME                     STA   NUM_ROWS
------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- ----------
    BLOCKS EMPTY_BLOCKS
---------- ------------
SYS                            TEST                           NO         100
         1            0

SQL> exec dbms_stats.flush_database_monitoring_info;
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

SQL> SELECT OWNER,TABLE_NAME,STALE_STATS,NUM_ROWS,BLOCKS,EMPTY_BLOCKS FROM DBA_TAB_STATISTICS where OWNER ='SYS' AND TABLE_NAME='TEST';
OWNER                          TABLE_NAME                     STA   NUM_ROWS
------------------------------ ------------------------------ --- ----------
    BLOCKS EMPTY_BLOCKS
---------- ------------
SYS                            TEST                           YES        100
         1            0

SQL>  select * from dba_tab_modifications where TABLE_OWNER='SYS' AND TABLE_NAME='TEST';
TABLE_OWNER                    TABLE_NAME
------------------------------ ------------------------------
PARTITION_NAME                 SUBPARTITION_NAME                 INSERTS
------------------------------ ------------------------------ ----------
   UPDATES    DELETES TIMESTAMP TRU DROP_SEGMENTS
---------- ---------- --------- --- -------------
SYS                            TEST
                                                                    1000
         0          0 19-JUN-12 NO              0