Great link, thanks, John :-) So RULE hint still works - sorry I said otherwise. But the explanations by Maria also shows that there are many things that may preclude the RULE hint from working in a particular statement. Which also can explain why David feels that "RULE hint rarely seems to enhance performance in 11g." ;-) Regards Kim Berg Hansen http://dspsd.blogspot.com kibeha@xxxxxxxxx @kibeha On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 9:10 PM, John Hurley <hurleyjohnb@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Yes "not supported" does not mean yet removed totally ... yet ... > > Maria Colgan > https://blogs.oracle.com/optimizer/entry/why_was_the_rule_hint > > >