how to force the use of an index?

hi all, i am using INFORMIX-Universal Server Version 9.13.UC3. i have the following table defined: testtable( p char (20), cnt int, data char (2000) ) with an unique index on the "p" attribute. after executing a query on this table "sqexplain.out" always tells me that it used a sequential scan. so i tried to force the use of the index by using directives. select {+INDEX(testtable,"ix102_1")} * from testtabled where p = ?; the index name should be right because it returns with the following query : select idxname from sysindices where tabid in ( select tabid from systables where tabname = "testtable"); by the way i set "DIRECTIVES 1" in onconfig and the enviroment variable IFX_DIRECTIVES to "ON" as well. many thanx for email any answers to : pfadenha@informatik.tu-muenchen.de