Oracle 9.0.1.6 fails to use index with '=' but will with 'like'

How is this

select * from coneventnp where chcontainer like 'OLSU8888888'

Uses the index on the chcontainer column, but

select * from coneventnp where chcontainer = 'OLSU8888888'

will result in a full table scan.

Anybody ever seen anything like this? We consider this to be beyond bizzare. Received on Tue May 17 2005 - 06:47:22 CDT