I have a DBA that is suggesting that to improve performance I need to embed 
optimizer hints in the SQL commands that I use against the database so it will 
use specific indexes.

Is this a good idea?

I believe performance problems are related to the size of the database as my 
test database (2 GB) has no problems at all and the production database has 
grown large and fat with lots of unnecessary records that should have been 
purged years ago.

I would have thought that embedding optimizer hints into a SQL statement in my 
code increases the level of coupling between my code and the database which is 
not a good thing.
Also it's the role of the optimizer to determine what indexes (provided they 
exist) to use.

Has anyone else done this sort of thing?
Am I just being stupid (or more so than usual)?

Regards Peter Maddin
Applications Development Officer
PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA
Phone : +618 9473 3944
Fax : +618 9473 3982
E-Mail : [email protected]
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