In 9i skip scan is turned on automatically without the necessity of the = hint. Under 9.2.0.3 we had to turn it off as the optimizer was choosing = it when other more usable indexes were avaialable. In 9.2.0.5, it = appears more stable. However, for simple performance it is useful in low = usage scenarios, (the query is not executed that often and you don't = have space to burn). Under heavy usage it is much more efficient to = simple build the index you need versus incurring the block buffer hit = from the skip scan. -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx = [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mladen Gogala Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 10:47 AM To: 'Oracle-L (E-mail)' Subject: Skip scans Is anybody using index skip scan feature? What would be a situation in = which the feature should be used? I have a SQL statement, part of ETL = process that I have to tune. The initial reuslts are encouraging = although not dramatic. Does anybody else have any type of practical = experience with skip scans and index_ss hint? -- Mladen Gogala Oracle DBA Ext. 121 -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l