When it comes to database performance, few topics are as fundamental — and as misunderstood — as literals and bind variables.
We've been taught that bind variables are our friends, helping avoid hard parses and boosting efficiency. But is it really that simple? Or, like in the famous double-slit experiment, does the mere "observation" — the values we pass — change the behavior of our queries?
• How bind variables influence PARENT and CHILD cursors
• When cursor sharing helps — and when it backfires
• How :BINDS affect cardinality, selectivity, and execution plans
• Whether cursors can adapt to different bind values (Adaptive Cursor Sharing)
By the end, you'll see that bind variables — like quantum particles — don't always behave the way we expect.