Charlotte, What does the plan show? Can you see if the subquery is being merged? Did you try w/ the NO_MERGE hint in the subquery? Like this: SELECT * FROM NASTY_VIEW WHERE ID = (SELECT /*+ NO_MERGE */ id FROM my_table WHERE ROWNUM=1); -Mark -- Mark J. Bobak Senior Oracle Architect ProQuest Information & Learning "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." --Robert A. Heinlein -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Charlotte Hammond Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 12:11 PM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Plea for Query Tuning Help Hi all, I have a very complicated view, NASTY_VIEW. SELECT * FROM NASTY_VIEW WHERE ID = :bind This is fast (< 1 second). CBO cost = 400. Fantastic. However if I try SELECT * FROM NASTY_VIEW WHERE ID = (SELECT id FROM my_table WHERE ROWNUM=1) This takes "forever" (well >> hours). my_table is a simple table and id is the primary key. CBO cost = 22000. Not fantastic. (SELECT id FROM my_table WHERE ROWNUM=1) happens in the blink of an eye if run alone. The execution plans are very different and it looks as if Oracle has attempted to merge the subquery into the top-level select. Similar things happen if I use a join instead of a sub-query. How can I prevent this happening so that it "looks" like the first "fantastic" query? I've tried messing with hints (NO_MERGE and PUSH_SUBQ) but I don't know enough to do so effectively. Statistics are full and up to date. This is Oracle 9.2.0.6. Any suggestions would be greatfully received! Thank you Charlotte __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l