TRUNCATE v DROP TABLE question

Using Oracle 8i on NT Server 4 (sp6a)

I have a table that gets populated from scratch every week or so using a "CREATE TABLE tablename as SELECT ..." statement.

As the table is very large its a bit tricky to try all different speed tests on it so I was wondering if somebody could tell me if this is the quickest way to do this?

Should I -

1. use a "TRUNCATE TABLE" statement & use a "INSERT INTO" instead? - will the indexes automatically be dropped aswell? - I don't want them active when doing an INSERT - do I have to recreate them after?
2. Use "DROP TABLE tablename cascade constraints" statement? - does this remove indexes aswell?
3. any other ideas?

Many thanks

HArry Received on Thu Jan 24 2002 - 06:07:59 CST