Quote:
If you really want to slow things down, COUNT(DISTINCT anycolumn_evenPK) will do so - so it's not quite anything_you_like.
Well, yes, of course, if you substitute "anything_you_like" with something stupid like some heawy power PL/SQL function that can bring your server to the knees. In this context you can treat DISTINCT in this case as such a function (BTW, DISTINCT is a funny beast, as it can be used both as a function and as an operator). What I ment with "anything_you_like" was any_constant, any_pseudocolumn, any not_null_column, any_you_know_what...