OPEN_CURSORS

Parameter type	Integer
Default value	50
Parameter class	Static
Range of values	1 to 4294967295 (4 GB -1)

OPEN_CURSORS specifies the maximum number of open cursors (handles to private SQL areas) a session can have at once. You can use this parameter to prevent a session from opening an excessive number of cursors. This parameter also constrains the size of the PL/SQL cursor cache which PL/SQL uses to avoid having to reparse as statements are reexecuted by a user.

It is important to set the value of OPEN_CURSORS high enough to prevent your application from running out of open cursors. The number will vary from one application to another. Assuming that a session does not open the number of cursors specified by OPEN_CURSORS, there is no added overhead to setting this value higher than actually needed.

See Also: Oracle9i Database Performance Tuning Guide and Reference for more information on setting this parameter Your operating system-specific Oracle documentation for the range of values