Use index for order by ?

Is there a way to make Oracle use index on a table for ordering rows ? Here is the problem : Say you have a table with million rows, you want to show 20 at a time on a screen in forms 4.5 (a very extreme example but illustrates what I want to say), you want rows to be ordered by a column (say cust_number which is primary key on customer table).

If you create a base table block and use order by clause, it seems Oracle attempts to sort all million rows before showing first set of 20 which can take awfully long time.

Is there a way of saying use index (primary key) and show first 20 without sorting all million (which can be very fast as far as performace seen by the use is concerned) ? Received on Thu Jan 18 1996 - 00:00:00 CET