Jonathan, Thank you! That is exactly what I was looking for, and it makes perfect sense. Regards, Paul On Apr 6, 2005 9:42 PM, Jonathan Gennick <jonathan@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hello Paul, > > It *can* make a difference when you move a predicate from the > WHERE clause into the JOIN clause. (It surprised me too) Have a look > at the following article: > > http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2002/10/01/whatsinacondition.html > > So far as I've ever been able to determine, moving a predicate between > WHERE and JOIN can only possibly make a difference when outer-joins > are involved. In essense, if you "say" it is a join predicate, then > SQL treats it like one. Again, as I admit in the article, I was caught > out once myself by this behavior. > > Best regards, > > Jonathan Gennick --- Brighten the corner where you are -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l