index is there but Oracle doesn't pick up the index

[hannah00]

I have index on level and for some reason it doesn't get pick up, I am trying to use the hint, can you help me to get the hint in so it can't pick up the index:

  select  SHAPE,   SHAPE.fid,SHAPE.numofpts,SHAPE.entity,SHAPE.points,SHAPE.rowid from  beam.shapefile , beam.F75 SHAPE where (( level = 5 )) and SHAPE.FID(+) = beam.shapefile.SHAPE
  ------------------------------------------------------------
    
  Statement Id=0   Type=SELECT STATEMENT
  Cost=8715  TimeStamp=19-04-05::13::55:13
  
       (1)  SELECT STATEMENT  CHOOSE 
     Est. Rows: 244,014  Cost: 8,715
       (4)  HASH JOIN OUTER 
     Est. Rows: 244,014  Cost: 8,715
           (2)  TABLE ACCESS FULL beam.shapefile  [Analyzed] 
           (2)   Blocks: 36,439 Est. Rows: 244,014 of 976,054  Cost: 3,506 
                Tablespace: DATA_TS_01
           (3)  TABLE ACCESS FULL beam.F75  [Analyzed] 
           (3)   Blocks: 19,234 Est. Rows: 976,054 of 976,054  Cost: 1,851 
                Tablespace: DATA_TS_01

[DaPi]

a) Are the "Est. Rows" about right?
and
b) How selective will "level=5" be?
(I'm assuming level is in the table beam.shapefile.)

If the answer to (a) is "yes", then the answer to (b) is "not very". So the full table scan will be the best option.

[marist89]

http://metalink.oracle.com/metalink/...T&p_id=67522.1