Ethan, Seems like you're getting a little overly defensive - I'm sorry if you didn't like my comment; it's just an opinion based on personal experience. And yes, I'd prefer to see a hash join hint or an index hint or something that show that the developer knows the plan they are trying to achieve. In my current environment, and I am only speaking for my current environment, the developers resort to rule too quickly. Robyn On 4/25/05, Post, Ethan <Ethan.Post@xxxxxx> wrote: > > or..."one of our developers used HASH JOIN hints all throughout their > SQL, now we had to go back and remove them and this took time and $$$, > can't wait until HASH JOIN hint is removed." > > you see the problem in this case and the case below has to do with the > review process, not the mere existence of the hint > > > -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l