There’s a good article over

There's a good article over at Oraclebase about putting together efficient SQL statements.

It's easy these days to forget about the basics like these; the way in which you list tables, use aliases, and use comparisons like EXISTS rather than IN, can have a dramatic effect on query performance and it's these sort of basics that I try to look for when tuning SQL statements.

Whilst much of the advice about driving tables is (I believe) redundant now with the Cost Based Optimiser, it's areas like this, and the use of Explain Plans and Hints, that can really make a difference on large datawarehouse tables.