While reading the 10053 trace file, I noticed that even though the parameter "_optimizer_max_permutations" is set to 2000, the "maxperm" parameter shows a value of 80000, which, I believe, was the default value in Oracle8i. Can anyone shed some light on why it is showing up as 80000 in the 10053 trace file. Thanks Amir -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l