Anand > Range Scan is used if the leading columns of the index are part of the > equality predicate. Of course you are right, equality predicates that are not applied through a unique index Oracle uses a RANGE SCAN. When I wrote that sentence I was thinking to SQL and not to Oracle's execution plans. I.e. I was thinking to (un)bounded searches. Regards, Chris -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l