BTW I hope that in your real test case you have defined columns as NOT NULL. That can make difference sometimes in index (not) usage :) I also tried your examples with columns as NOT NULLS, but the best I could achieve was INDEX FULL SCAN or FAST FULL INDEX SCAN, and these wasn't better (in terms of logical reads) than 2 full scans and hash join. Gints Plivna http://www.gplivna.eu 2010/11/5 Petr Novak <Petr.Novak@xxxxxxxxxxxx>: > Hallo Dion, > > I have found two Notes in Metalink: > > Bug 7345484 - Left outer join with filters are slow [ID 7345484.8] > CBO Chooses Poor Plan In 10.2.0.4/11.1.0.6 When Outer Joining [ID 727604.1] -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l