Hi, Chris,=20 Thanks for your answer.=20 I remember autotrace does not print the plan correctly, when histogram is used under certain conditions. But I am not sure now and I will do some test to verify it. And autotrace also have limit print the partition prune. (In your case and partition prune, it did not print the wrong plan , just with some limitation actualy, right?) Maybe other casae that it reported the wrong plan, I will keep it updated when I am aware of it. > >Can I ask one more question , about the > >"the index tie-break rule being the only reasonable exception, all > >the other possibilities are a bit far fetched IMO" >=20 > What do you mean??? >=20 > HTH > Chris >=20 Wolfgang email to me offline , and he said the index tie-break rule. But I have never heard of it before, so asking him about more detail. As for the RBO part of your question, I don't think the RBO plans will change (the index tie-break rule being the only reasonable exception, all the other possibilities are a bit far fetched IMO).=20 --=20 Regards Zhu Chao www.cnoug.org -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l