hi all, I'm doing a bunch of serial jobs of the form: exec dbms_stats.gather_table_stats( ownname=> 'xxx', tabname=>'xxxx',estimate_percent=> 30,method_opt=>'FOR ALL COLUMNS SIZE 1 FOR ALL INDEXED COLUMNS', cascade=> true); for many tables in a schema. I have noticed that, for some tables only, even small ones, Oracle decides it's easier to create a global temporary table in the SYS.ora_temp_xyz rather than simply doing the "select..." this to me, is messing up too much the SYS data dictionary-- creating tons of objects of this nature... Why does this happen and how can I prevent it? thx, Cosmin