The vast majority of professional SQL developers prefer to use the dbms_xplan format for explain/execution plans. I know recently there was an enhancement made to SQL Developer to be able to generate the SQL statement to run this but it's cumbersome, and a workaround to a problem. This feature request is for Toad-like functionality, which a user can select what format they want their plan to be displayed in. So no messing around having to generate a statement, running that separately (which then clears the data grid for your previous query). Should be the same as Toad, where if the SQL hasn't yet been parsed/executed, then it's reported as an explain plan, but if it has, then return the execution plan for that SQL ID.