Denis wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> I have been observing a very strange behaviour in regards to the
> following SQL in my database, that i have not been able to explain:
>
> select TO_CHAR(sysdate, 'MM/DD/YYYY HH24:MI:SS') from dual;
>
> This SQL should have a very low execution time, but takes 1 second to
> complete.
>
> The v$SQLAREA has the following entries for this SQL:
>
> LOADS : 274, PARSE_CALLS : 5157567, BUFFER_GETS : 25784870, EXECUTIONS
> : 5181218
>
> Why is the behaviour like this? why are there so many buffer gets
> involved with this query? What happens internally in Oracle when this
> call is made?
>
> Please advise.
>
> Thanks
>
> Regards,
> Denis Mirchandani.

And your version of Oracle is?
--
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damorgan@x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with 'u' to respond)