** Oracle Query Hints: Optimizing Performance and Scalability

Oracle query hints are a powerful tool for developers to improve the performance and scalability of their database queries. By providing explicit instructions to the Oracle optimizer, hints can help guide the execution plan to achieve optimal results.

According to the official documentation, query hints can be used to specify:

* Full table scan or index access
* Join methods (nested loop join or hash join)
* Parallel processing
* Specific join order
* Subquery transformations
* Resource-intensive queries to reduce contention

Using query hints effectively requires a deep understanding of the data size, distribution, and selectivity. Developers can leverage EXPLAIN PLAN or DBMS_XPLAN.DISPLAY to see the impact of hints on query performance.

By leveraging Oracle hints correctly, developers can:

* Influence execution plans for optimal query performance
* Reduce resource consumption
* Improve scalability

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Source: https://dev.to/mrcaption49/query-hints-30pn