About the Index Hint

An Index hint explains how the optimizer scans a specified index rather than a table.

See Oracle hints in the SQL reference guide for the version of the Oracle Database that you use.

This is the syntax for the Index hint:

index(table_name,index_name)

For example, suppose queries against the ORDER_ITEMS table are slow and you've reviewed the processing plan of the query optimizer and discovered that the FAST_INDEX wasn't used. You can create an Index hint to force the optimizer to scan the FAST_INDEX rather than the ORDER_ITEMS table.

For this example, you add this syntax to the physical table's SQL Hints properties field:

index(ORDER_ITEMS, FAST_INDEX)