To keep a cursor in the shared pool, gather both its address and hash value from a v$sql, v$sqlarea, or perhaps v$open_cursor script. Notice that in the following code snippet the address (6877c238) and hash value (1356456286) are concatenated together with a comma between them. The second parameter is a C, since we are keeping a cursor. For keeping triggers the parameter is T; for sequences, use Q; and for packages, procedures, and functions, the parameter is P.

The preceding code snippet can be used for programmatic structures as well, but most find the following option easiest to use. The next code snippet is an example of keeping the buy procedure owned by the trader schema.

Finally, upon issuing either one of the preceding code snippets, you can easily check to ensure the object is indeed being kept. For example, Figure 7-15 (which does not show cursors) will clearly show the trader.buy procedure with the Kept? column set to YES.