RE: full-scan vs index for "small" tables

>On Behalf Of Nigel Thomas
>To be fair, the sentence continues (my bold, from 10gR1):
>"...a full table scan might be cheaper than an index range scan"
>or by implication it might not. Or they could be the same. Or England
could win the World Cup. Or whatever. Looks like they've got all the angles covered there then.  

And surely I am lost. What are the best practices for SQL programmer in the modern post_Rule_Based_Optimizer Oracle then?  

• Rely on unreliable CBO? But all we have already heard stories of even Oracle fighting it's own CBO for *stable* data dictionary performance. And CBO is inherently unstable at least in the beginning of application's life cycle.
• Onlines? But they may or may not to cover all SQL. And outlines will not cover literal SQL("legal" literal SQL), will they?
• Hint every single statement? That one seems to be the option, doesn't it?

P.S. Just wandering: is there a hint to *disable* statistics at statement or session level? I mean, let CBO use *defaults* making it kind of rule based actually.      

Thank you in advance,
Laimis N.  

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