O9i: How to create a matching index to a given query

Hi ng,

this is a general question about indexes and queries. I am glad about any hint. I can not imagine that all experienced Oracle- Gurus only work with try and error. There must be a strategie.

At first: I actually work on Oracle 9.2.0.7 DB.

If there is a query like

SELECT <any_fields> FROM T1
JOIN T2 ON T2.F1=T1.F2
JOIN T3 ON T3.F1=T1.F3
WHERE T2.FX=<a value> and T3.FX=<a value> GROUP BY T1.F4

1. What way is to go to find out what index should be created to make this query faster?
2. What (except hardware) does the performance depend on?
3. Is there any place I can read about it? What search string I could use for google search?

Many thanks
Andreas Mosmann

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