An explain plan in Oracle is a detailed report that shows the steps that the Oracle optimizer will take to execute a SQL statement. It can be used to identify potential performance problems and to tune the statement for better performance. To check the explain plan for a SQL statement, you can use the EXPLAIN PLAN statement. The EXPLAIN PLAN statement will generate a report that shows the steps that the optimizer will take to execute the statement, along with the estimated cost of each step and the estimated number of rows that will be returned by each step.
Explain plans are an important tool for performance tuning in Oracle. They can help you to identify potential performance problems and to tune your statements for better performance. By understanding how the optimizer will execute a statement, you can make changes to the statement to improve its performance.