EXPLAIN PLAN VERSUS THE TRACE FILE

[ashley75]

Hi all,

what is the difference between the Explain Plan and SQL trace????

thanks

[TimHall]

SQL Trace gives you more information than explain plan. It's especially useful when you want to get plan information for batch processes or stored procedures since you can dump out the whole process in one go, rather than picking out individual DML and explaining it.

The only point of note is you must run a statement to get an SQL trace. The explain plan does not require the statement to be run.

See:

http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/...nPlanUsage.php
http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/...dTkprof10g.php
http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/9i/DBMS_XPLAN.php

Cheers