Thank you John,

that was it.

Gerhard

>>>The column DATEI is defined as C(240) and has an index on UPPER(DATEI).
>
>To use the index, you need the filter to be UPPER(datei) as well.
>
>

WHERE UPPER(Datei) = UPPER(lcPfad)

>
>With no index on Datei, a filter on Datei does a table scan.