When a user connects to my HP-UX 10g database from Excel via ODBC and runs a SQL select statement joining 2 tables, a 10046 trace clearly shows that statement running quickly, then another mysterious statement running, which is basically a select from the 2 tables with no join. This causes it to run for more than 10 minutes. The original statement runs < 2 second in SQLPLUS. Can anyone explain? Thanks all, John Fedock K Line America, Inc. john.fedock <at> us.kline.com