On 07/06/2008, at 12:18 AM, Nathan Day wrote:

>>> One
>>> concern with Ruby is the use  of bind variables, we need to use bind
>>> variables for performance concerns, I am sure I am getting different
>>> concepts mixed up.
>>
>> Probably prepared statements is what would make the difference in  
>> performance.
>
> Would there be in point in using a prepared statement if you don't  
> have bind variables, every change to a variable would result in an  
> complete new statement. There is also an issue with Oracle 9 and  
> earlier which resulting in bad performance without bind variable,  
> oracle caches compiled statements and without bind variables every  
> query is treated as a new statement. We have even had extreme case  
> where the database would collect so many compiled queries that it  
> was clear out that the database failed. Oracle issue has a  
> compromise fix, oracle 11 can use bind variables to make decisions  
> about how to perform the query.

OK once again in english

We have even had extreme case where the database would collect so many  
compiled queries that it wasn't clearing out that the database failed.  
Oracle 10 has a compromise fix where you get Oracle to convert all  
values to bind variables, oracle 11 can use bind variables to make  
decisions about how to perform the query.