Explain plan results are different in SQL Developer than SQL Plus

Question

My Environment:
SQL Developer 1.0.0.15.27
Platform where SQL Developer is running: Windows XP 2002 SP2
Oracle Database and Client 9.2.0.7
Optimizer_mode: FIRST_ROWS
I have the following SQL statement:
SELECT a1.comp_id
FROM temp_au_company a0, au_company a1
WHERE :b2 = a0.temp_emp_code
AND a0.comp_id = a1.comp_id
AND a0.sls_terr_code != a1.sls_terr_code
AND a1.last_mdfy_date > :b1
When I run an Explain in SQL Developer I get the following access path (which is the one I really want):
SELECT STATEMENT                          TABLE ACCESS(BY INDEX ROWID) FEDLINK.AU_COMPANY          NESTED LOOPS                                   INDEX(RANGE SCAN)
FEDLINK.UX2_TEMP_AU_COMPANY
          INDEX(RANGE SCAN) FEDLINK.PX1_COMPANY
However, when I execute the statement with sql_trace turned on and use tkprof to generate the actual access path, the statement executes as follows (which is WAY more expensive):
call count cpu elapsed disk query current rows
Parse 1 0.00 0.00 0 0 0 0
Execute 1 0.00 0.00 0 0 0 0
Fetch 1 3.58 6.68 28136 29232 0 0
total 3 3.58 6.69 28136 29232 0 0
Misses in library cache during parse: 1
Optimizer goal: FIRST_ROWS
Parsing user id: 979 (FEDLINK) (recursive depth: 1)
Rows Row Source Operation
0 NESTED LOOPS
0 TABLE ACCESS FULL AU_COMPANY
0 INDEX RANGE SCAN UX2_TEMP_AU_COMPANY (object id 49783)
Notice the FULL access of au_company.
I understand that SQL Developer has nothing to do with why the statement executed the way it did, but why is the Explain in SQL Developer different than the actual execution plan?
Added note....when I run the explain in SQL Plus it is the same as the actual execution. Here is the explain from SQL Plus:
explain plan for SELECT a1.comp_id
FROM temp_au_company a0, au_company a1
WHERE '1' = a0.temp_emp_code
AND a0.comp_id = a1.comp_id
AND a0.sls_terr_code != a1.sls_terr_code
AND a1.last_mdfy_date > '01-MAY-2006';
PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost |
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 2 | 76 | 2597 |
| 1 | NESTED LOOPS | | 2 | 76 | 2597 |
| 2 | TABLE ACCESS FULL | AU_COMPANY | 2 | 42 | 2595 |
| 3 | INDEX RANGE SCAN | UX2_TEMP_AU_COMPANY | 1 | 17 | 2
Thanks,
Brenda

Answer 1

The explain is different (full scan of au_company in SQL Plus / index access in SQL Developer) even when I use variables in SQL Plus. Here is the output for SQL Plus using variables instead of literals:
SQL> variable b1 varchar2
SQL> variable b2 char
SQL> explain plan for SELECT a1.comp_id
2 FROM temp_au_company a0, au_company a1
3 WHERE :b2 = a0.temp_emp_code
4 AND a0.comp_id = a1.comp_id
5 AND a0.sls_terr_code != a1.sls_terr_code
6 AND a1.last_mdfy_date > :b1
7 /
Explained.
PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
| Id | Operation | Name | Rows | Bytes | Cost |
| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 3184 | 118K| 2995 |
| 1 | HASH JOIN | | 3184 | 118K| 2995 |
| 2 | INDEX RANGE SCAN | UX2_TEMP_AU_COMPANY | 3187 | 54179 | 3 |
| 3 | TABLE ACCESS FULL | AU_COMPANY | 24009 | 492K| 2983 |
Any other ideas? They should be the same.
Brenda