If you are running Oracle, then the situation is much improved with a "skip-scan" of an index for a non-leading column. -------------------------- | 0 |

If you are running Oracle, then the situation is much improved with a "skip-scan" of an index for a non-leading column. -------------------------- | 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 1 | SORT AGGREGATE | |* 2 | INDEX SKIP SCAN| _index_name... -------------------------- I think that the free XE version of Oracle database supports it, if you absolutely need this capability and you are willing to go closed source.