Index usage with Wildcards - Informix vs. Oracle

Hello, after a controversial discussion with some colleagues, I want to ask this question to the collective net wisdom: When a query is done using wildcards (e.g. ...WHERE column LIKE 'HUB%'), can the engine use an existing index on that column? To my knowledge, Informix can use the index as long as the wildcard is not the first character in the query string, as in the above example. Our Oracle people claim that Oracle cannot use an index as soon as wildcards are involved. Is that really true? Regards, Richard -- +----------------------------+-------------------------------------------+ | Dr. Richard Spitz | INTERNET: spitz@ana.med.uni-muenchen.de | | EDV-Gruppe Anaesthesie | Tel : +49-89-7095-3413 | | Klinikum Grosshadern | FAX : +49-89-7095-8886 | | 81366 Munich, Germany | | +----------------------------+-------------------------------------------+