what is statistics in vertica?? is it like a indexing in oracle?

Hi,
Statistics in a given time include info about your data , the info is mainly about the data distibution per colum and the amount of distinct value each column has . this info is being used by the optimizer helping him to used the correct execution plan(with regard to performence) for your data/query + the relevant projectios . when you analyze statistics , vertica will sample your data and build / update the statistics .