Thanks Kerry - Bruno Pier Paolo suggested using the 'BASIC' argument for plan stats and that worked perfectly. I can copy the plans from different environments, paste in Winmerge and get a nice quick and easy diff compare. This thread took on a life of its own after my reply to Bruno. (THANKS to everyone who has responded) Chris -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kerry Osborne Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2013 8:38 AM To: tanel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: oracle-l Freelists Subject: Re: Semi-OT: Vi Question/Need Or you could use SQL*Plus to get what you want in the first place. (use substr and a few where clauses) SYS@dbm1> l 1 select substr(PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT,1,73) PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT from table(dbms_xplan.display_cursor('&sql_id','&child_no','typical')) 2 where PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT like '|%' or PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT like '-------------------------------------------------------%' 3* or PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT like 'SQL_ID%' or PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT like 'Plan hash value%' SYS@dbm1> / Enter value for sql_id: 1n60q90jkatjj Enter value for child_no: PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SQL_ID 1n60q90jkatjj, child number 0 Plan hash value: 2886813138 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Id | Operation | Name | Rows | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | | | 1 | SORT ORDER BY | | 1 | | 2 | NESTED LOOPS | | 1 | | 3 | NESTED LOOPS | | 1 | | 4 | NESTED LOOPS | | 1 | | 5 | FIXED TABLE FULL | X$KSLWT | 56 | |* 6 | FIXED TABLE FIXED INDEX| X$KSUSE (ind:1) | 1 | |* 7 | FIXED TABLE FIXED INDEX | X$KSLED (ind:2) | 1 | |* 8 | FIXED TABLE FIXED INDEX | X$KGLCURSOR_CHILD (ind:2) | 1 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 rows selected. Kerry Osborne Enkitec blog: kerryosborne.oracle-guy.com twitter: https://twitter.com/KerryOracleGuy -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l