Sorry, don't have time to read through all this thoroughly, but from a brief scan it looks like "_sort_elimination_cost_ratio"=5 might help. Check out Metalink 272202.1. Regards, Brandon Privileged/Confidential Information may be contained in this message or attachments hereto. Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of this company shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l