FYI, there is a BUG (3406977) that describes my original problem exactly and also a one-off patch for 9.2.0.5, at least on HPUX. And yes, it's a CURSOR_SHARING=FORCE/SIMILAR problem. Makes me wish I could have come up with better arguments as to why we needed to be programming with binds... Rich -----Original Message----- Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 9:02 AM Subject: RE: Trouble with multiple versions of same statement in V$SQL It looks like I'll file a TAR to see if there actually is a problem and = to see if it's fixed in 10.2... :) Thanks Jonathan and Steve! Rich -----Original Message----- Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2004 5:10 PM Subject: RE: Trouble with multiple versions of same statement in V$SQL Hi Rich, If multiple sessions attempt to parse the same statement simultaneously = then they can each get their own child cursor. However, that is unlikely to give you hundreds of children unless you also have = invalidations. My guess would be that CURSOR_SHARING =3D SIMILAR is to blame (again). = Try FORCE and the problem is likely to disappear. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l