select <something> from dual is about as optimized as you can get these days - you'll be extremely unlikely to find a lower impact statement. The most optimized statement is still the one that you don't execute, but if you do have to execute one select <something> from dual is about as good as you get. I don't imagine that swapping to pl/sql will be lower impact! On Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 8:13 AM, Martin Busik <martin.busik@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > > If you need it - try to find a valid sql which consumes as less resources > as > possible. I suppose > as "begin null; end;" might be cheaper in terms of resource usage than a > select statement. > > Cheers, > Martin > > > > -- > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l > > > -- Niall Litchfield Oracle DBA http://www.orawin.info