It seems strange to me:
When all needed columns are in the index, filter predicates are expectedly applied to the index
select a,b from xt_test where a=1 and
(:b is null or b = :b)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation        | Name       | Starts | E-Rows | A-Rows |   A-Time   | Buffers |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT |            |      1 |        |      1 |00:00:00.01 |       2 |
|*  1 |  INDEX RANGE SCAN| PK_XT_TEST |      1 |      1 |      1 |00:00:00.01 |       2 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
   1 - access("A"=1)
       filter((:B IS NULL OR "B"=:B))
But if I add another column “PAD”, the filter moves to the table filters:
select a,b,pad from xt_test where a=1
and (:b is null or b = :b)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation                   | Name       | Starts | E-Rows | A-Rows | Buffers |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT            |            |      1 |        |      1 |       4 |
|*  1 |  TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| XT_TEST    |      1 |      1 |      1 |       4 |
|*  2 |   INDEX RANGE SCAN          | PK_XT_TEST |      1 |     10 |     10 |       2 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
   1 - filter((:B IS NULL OR "B"=:B))
   2 - access("A"=1)
As workaround we can use something like that:
select--+ NO_ELIMINATE_JOIN(t) NO_ELIMINATE_JOIN(t2@sel$2) gather_plan_statistics
   a,b,pad
from xt_test t
where t.rowid in ( select t2.rowid
                   from xt_test t2
                   where a=1
                     and (:b is null or b = :b)
                 );
Plan hash value: 1464320522
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation                   | Name       | Starts | E-Rows | A-Rows |Buffers |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT            |            |      1 |        |      1 |      3 |
|   1 |  NESTED LOOPS               |            |      1 |      1 |      1 |      3 |
|*  2 |   INDEX RANGE SCAN          | PK_XT_TEST |      1 |      1 |      1 |      2 |
|   3 |   TABLE ACCESS BY USER ROWID| XT_TEST    |      1 |      1 |      1 |      1 |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
   2 - access("A"=1)
       filter((:B IS NULL OR "B"=:B))
[sourcecode language=”sql”]
create table xt_test(a,b,pad,constraint pk_xt_test primary key(a,b))
as select
      mod(rownum,10) a
     ,rownum         b
     ,rpad(rownum,10) pad
   from dual
   connect by level<=100;
call dbms_stats.gather_table_stats(”,’XT_TEST’);
var b number;
exec :b:=1;
select/*+ gather_plan_statistics */
  a,b,pad
from xt_test
where a=1 and (:b is null or b = :b);
select * from table(dbms_xplan.display_cursor(”,”,’allstats last’));
select/*+ gather_plan_statistics */
  a,b
from xt_test
where a=1 and (:b is null or b = :b);
select * from table(dbms_xplan.display_cursor(”,”,’allstats last’));
select–+ NO_ELIMINATE_JOIN(t) NO_ELIMINATE_JOIN(t2@sel$2) gather_plan_statistics
   a,b,pad
from xt_test t
where t.rowid in ( select t2.rowid
                   from xt_test t2
                   where a=1
                     and (:b is null or b = :b)
                 );
select * from table(dbms_xplan.display_cursor(”,”,’allstats last’));
[/sourcecode]
Update:
I just forgot to mention that there is another workaround – to force concatenation:
SQL> select--+ use_concat(or_predicates(2))
  2     a,b,pad
  3  from xt_test where a=1 and (:b is null or b = :b);
         A          B PAD
---------- ---------- ----------------------------------------
         1          1 1
Plan hash value: 3582916188
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Id  | Operation                     | Name       | Starts | E-Rows | Cost (%CPU)| A-Rows |   A-Time   | Buffers | Reads  |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|   0 | SELECT STATEMENT              |            |      1 |        |     3 (100)|      1 |00:00:00.01 |       2 |      2 |
|   1 |  CONCATENATION                |            |      1 |        |            |      1 |00:00:00.01 |       2 |      2 |
|   2 |   TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID | XT_TEST    |      1 |      1 |     1   (0)|      1 |00:00:00.01 |       2 |      2 |
|*  3 |    INDEX UNIQUE SCAN          | PK_XT_TEST |      1 |      1 |     0   (0)|      1 |00:00:00.01 |       1 |      1 |
|*  4 |   FILTER                      |            |      1 |        |            |      0 |00:00:00.01 |       0 |      0 |
|   5 |    TABLE ACCESS BY INDEX ROWID| XT_TEST    |      0 |     10 |     2   (0)|      0 |00:00:00.01 |       0 |      0 |
|*  6 |     INDEX RANGE SCAN          | PK_XT_TEST |      0 |     10 |     1   (0)|      0 |00:00:00.01 |       0 |      0 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Predicate Information (identified by operation id):
---------------------------------------------------
   3 - access("A"=1 AND "B"=:B)
   4 - filter(:B IS NULL)
   6 - access("A"=1)
       filter(LNNVL("B"=:B))
								