Morning All, sorry to join the party late, but I'm in the UK and was asleep when you all started :o) No-one has yet mentioned that most developers doe something like the following : begin parse statement bind variables execute statement process results end or even worse : begin loop parse statement bind variables execute statement process results end loop so the so called prepared statement is treated as just another unprepared statement. The code really should be as follows : begin if statement in not yet prepared then parse statement end if bind variables execute statement process results end or if statement in not yet prepared then parse statement end if begin loop bind variables execute statement process results end loop This reduces the parse to execute ratio from 1:1 (or worse, some development systems pre-parse the statement to allow for the fetching of 'better' information in case of errors (credit : Cary Mlilsap) - giving a 2:1 p:e ratio). Not picking on Java developers here by the way, I see it in PL/SQL as well. Just my £0.02. Cheers, Norman. Norman Dunbar. Contract Oracle DBA. Rivers House, Leeds. Internal : 7 28 2051 External : 0113 231 2051 Information in this message may be confidential and may be legally privileged. If you have received this message by mistake, please notify the sender immediately, delete it and do not copy it to anyone else. We have checked this email and its attachments for viruses. But you should still check any attachment before opening it. We may have to make this message and any reply to it public if asked to under the Freedom of Information Act, Data Protection Act or for litigation. Email messages and attachments sent to or from any Environment Agency address may also be accessed by someone other than the sender or recipient, for business purposes. If we have sent you information and you wish to use it please read our terms and conditions which you can get by calling us on 08708 506 506. Find out more about the Environment Agency at www.environment-agency.gov.uk -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l