Generally speaking, I've never seen CBO chose skip scan by itself. INDEX_SS may help, if you're certain that it will improve performance. -- Mladen Gogala Ext. 121 _____ From: Hameed, Amir [mailto:Amir.Hameed@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 12:58 PM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Index skip scan Folks, Does anyone know that in order for the optimizer to choose "Index skip scan" on a concatenated index where the first column is not very selective but the second one is, approximately what type of selectivity on the leading column the Optimizer look for before deciding to take this route? Thanks Amir