How to Change Cursor_Sharing

The "Cursor_Sharing" setting in Oracle is a way to conserve resources on an Oracle database. Setting the "Cursor_Sharing" option to "Exact" tells the Oracle server to use similar statements already in the execution queue. This means that the statements do not need to use new memory resources. Instead, the database uses the statements already loaded in memory. This is a type of Oracle database management setting that speeds up queries on the server.

Instructions

1. Click the Windows "Start" button on the Oracle server. Click "All Programs," and then click the "Oracle" program group. Click "Enterprise Manager" to open the database configuration utility.

2. Click the "iSQL Plus" link. This opens an SQL editor where you can type the statement to change the "Cursor_Sharing" option in the database.

3. Type the following Oracle code in the editor:

   ALTER SESSION SET cursor_sharing='EXACT';

   This option only allows SQL statements that share the exact code with the currently loaded SQL statements.

4. Press the "F5" key to execute the code. You can also click the "Run" button in Enterprise Manager. A "Success" message returns, so you know the code was executed successfully.

References

• PSOUG: Oracle Cursor Sharing