Does Oracle use stale stats for the CBO if fresh stats aren't available or does Oracle treat stale stats the same as non-existant stats? Is there a way, other than re-analyzing the table or index, to keep stats from being marked as stale? We have tables that are being truncated nightly and then being re-loaded with data that is 99.99% identical with the previsous data. (Don't bother telling me that we shouldn't be doing it that way; I have to play with the cards I'm dealt.) I have the schema stats locked and the automatic stats job is disabled. (It insisted on computing new stats on the table when it was at 0 rows.) Oracle is marking the stats as STALE. Other than exporting the good stats and re-importing them daily, is there any way to stop Oracle from marking the stats as stale?