> So.... looking through this thread.... any way that dynamic sampling > could be a bad boy here? > > Just a wild, off the cuff thought.... > > RF > > Robert G. Freeman > Oracle ACE That is actually very good idea (all the time I had the impression I missed something obvious) - in principle dynamic sampling should be able to get the selectivity right. In this particular case the question would be if the overhead induced by dynamic sampling would outweigh the benefit of it. It depends largely on the sample level required to get helpful estimates - it might be worth a try to add a "DYNAMIC_SAMPLING(LETTER_BIN 2)" hint - starting with a low sample level (may be even 1). Higher sampling levels will get the selectivity right but the overhead might be significant then. Regards, Randolf Oracle related stuff blog: http://oracle-randolf.blogspot.com/ Co-author of the forthcoming "OakTable Expert Oracle Practices" book: http://www.apress.com/book/view/1430226684 http://www.amazon.com/Expert-Oracle-Practices-Database-Administration/dp/1430226684 ______________________________________________________ GRATIS für alle WEB.DE-Nutzer: Die maxdome Movie-FLAT! Jetzt freischalten unter http://movieflat.web.de -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l