Beware that there is also what I believe to be a bug where all values for the columns in v$sql_shared_cursor are "N", despite multiple children. Oracle Support had no answer for me and I had no more time to spend on it. I first noticed it at my last job on 10.2 and now here on 10.1 -- two different companies, two completely different applications, one using binds on a 3-tier web app, the other a client-server model not using binds. The only thing in common is the DBA... :) Rich > Check out this article - it has some good information to help explain what > you are seeing... > > www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/08-jan/o18asktom.html -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l