Multiple indexes - how do they work?

[Rathi Rao]

When I create mutiple indexes on a table and all those indexed columns are referred in the 'where' clause, how do they all work together to find a single row that satisfies all the conditions in the 'where' clause ?

Example -

select col1,col2,col3 from tab where col1 = xxx and col2 = yyy

index on col1, idxcol1 and index on col2,idxcol2 .. col3 being the primary key,idxcol3

when I execute this query, how do the indexes work? Does it go this way,

Step1 - idxcol1 is used to figure out the value 'xxx' and then idxcol3(primary index/key) is used to get to the row
Step2 - And then idxcol2 is used to figure out the value 'yyy' and then and the idxcol3(primary index/key) is used to get to the row

Regards
Rathi