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H$PSEUDO_CURSOR (Doc ID 1298471.1)

Last updated on JULY 02, 2023

Applies to:

Oracle Database Cloud Service - Version N/A and later
Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition - Version 10.2.0.1 and later
Oracle Database Cloud Schema Service - Version N/A and later
Oracle Database Exadata Express Cloud Service - Version N/A and later
Gen 1 Exadata Cloud at Customer (Oracle Exadata Database Cloud Machine) - Version N/A and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Goal

Pseudo cursors are structures to provide direct access to schema objects; avoiding the overhead of writing an explicit SELECT statement.

These pseudo cursors show in Enterprise Manager and AWR reports with the legend
"SQL Text Not Available"
 
They are used by internal mechanisms in the RDBMS and cannot be harnessed by the user.
Their most common use is to access data dictionary tables, LOBs , NCHAR, and NVARCHAR2 directly.
WARNING: Querying H$PSEUDO_CURSOR or the X$ views it references can cause severe library cache latch and mutex contention, so it is imperative that it is only used sparingly while diagnosing an issue where pseudo cursors are suspected.

Solution

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