SQL> create table xtest as 2 select a as v 3 ,xmltype(a) as x 4 ,to_clob(a) as c 5 from (select '<a>'||lpad(1,3900,1)||'</a>' a from dual connect by level<=1000); Table created. SQL> set arrays 1000; SQL> set autot trace stat; SQL> select v,v,v from xtest; 1000 rows selected. Statistics ---------------------------------------------------------- 7 recursive calls 0 db block gets 1068 consistent gets 1000 physical reads 0 redo size 29001 bytes sent via SQL*Net to client 360 bytes received via SQL*Net from client 2 SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client 0 sorts (memory) 0 sorts (disk) 1000 rows processed SQL> select x,x,x from xtest; 1000 rows selected. Statistics ---------------------------------------------------------- 377 recursive calls 0 db block gets 5083 consistent gets 31 physical reads 0 redo size 12731016 bytes sent via SQL*Net to client 427179 bytes received via SQL*Net from client 3009 SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client 2 sorts (memory) 0 sorts (disk) 1000 rows processed SQL> select c,c,c from xtest; 1000 rows selected. Statistics ---------------------------------------------------------- 5 recursive calls 0 db block gets 4066 consistent gets 3000 physical reads 0 redo size 24494417 bytes sent via SQL*Net to client 500360 bytes received via SQL*Net from client 4002 SQL*Net roundtrips to/from client 0 sorts (memory) 0 sorts (disk) 1000 rows processed SQL> set autot off;