CURSOR_SHARING

Property	Description
Parameter type	String
Syntax	`CURSOR_SHARING = { SIMILAR \| EXACT \| FORCE }`
Default value	`EXACT`
Modifiable	`ALTER SESSION`, `ALTER SYSTEM`
Basic	No

CURSOR_SHARING determines what kind of SQL statements can share the same cursors.

Values:

FORCE

Forces statements that may differ in some literals, but are otherwise identical, to share a cursor, unless the literals affect the meaning of the statement.
SIMILAR

Causes statements that may differ in some literals, but are otherwise identical, to share a cursor, unless the literals affect either the meaning of the statement or the degree to which the plan is optimized.
EXACT

Only allows statements with identical text to share the same cursor.

Note:
Forcing cursor sharing among similar (but not identical) statements can have unexpected results in some DSS applications, or applications that use stored outlines.

See Also:
Oracle Database Performance Tuning Guide for information on setting this parameter in these and other environments