It might be interesting to see what dbms_metadata says about the index definition - I'm wondering whether this is a system that has been upgraded from 9i. Regards Jonathan Lewis http://jonathanlewis.wordpress.com Oracle Core (Apress 2011) http://www.apress.com/9781430239543 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jonathan Lewis" <jonathan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2012 9:27 AM Subject: Re: Q:Index fragmentation ?? interesting challenge ? There's obviously a lot of empty space in the index - but it's not size that matters, it's what you do with it. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l