Database statistics & Hints

Hi,

I have few question regarding Database statistics & Hints.

1. I understand that after creating a database index, the database statistics for that table must be updated. Otherwise the optimiser will not detect the index. Can I overcome this using the database hints?

2. As far as I am aware of we are safe to create index for all transparant tables. Are there any restictions?

How about table VEPO?

The syntax I have used for hints is

%_HINTS ORACLE 'INDEX("VEPO~Z1")'

Hope this is correct.

Thanks in advance

Vinod