Goran, In my case I don't have any range conditions. My query is select * from table where column='zzz'; thank you Gene Gurevich "goran bogdanovic" <goran00@xxxxxxxx To m> genegurevich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx cc 08/01/2006 08:03 sac@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, oracle-l AM <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject Re: Column order in indices (oracle 9.2) Pay also attention if some of those columns has been used in the where clause with a range condition. If such, put this column(s) at the end of the index. The reason why, you can find in the book of J.Lewis. CBO walk the mysterious ways :-) On 8/1/06, Schultz, Charles <sac@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: The column order does matter, but Oracle can SKIP SCAN an index in the situation you talk about. To determine exactly what is going on, you should at least get an explain plan of your sql. I imagine there are other factors involved. -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of genegurevich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2006 7:44 AM To: oracle-l Subject: Column order in indices (oracle 9.2) Hi everybody: I remember reading that in Oracle 9.2 and higher the order of the columns in an index does not matter. That is oracle will be able to quickly search on a column even if it is not a leading one. I have a table with a primary key consisting of three columns. When a table is queried based on the third column, the data start coming out immediately, but when I use the second column the query just sits there. Is that an expected behavior? Did I misunderstood something about the column order? thanks for any insight Gene Gurevich -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l