According to Oracle 8i Concepts manual:

---
The B-tree structure has the following advantages:
(...)
* B-tree indexes automatically stay balanced.
(...)
---

So, why the need of rebuilding indexes periodically? Of course auto-balancing may not be true for all index types, but B-Tree is by far the most common, am I right?

And... does anyone know how Oracle manages that feature? What processes are involved in auto-balancing indexes?


Adriano.