On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 Bobak,Mark wrote : >What do the execution plans look like in each case? Hi Mark , thanx for ur reply. When i changed the "=" with "LIKE" in the SQL, the executions plans have changed a lot bring down the records finally selected from 18,00,000 to 1,40,000 . But anyway the table on which LIKE operated is small (with 30 records only).In both the cases, CBO went for a full scan of the table.But then why did the LIKE change the plan so much. i couldn't understand this. Thanx and Regards, Prem. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l