Sorting problems (can a 'lousy' sort cause a database crach?)

Hello

I have a little problem with craches sometimes in the database. In our client application there is a window performing this population:

select col1, col2, col3

          function1(col1, col2, ...)
          ...
          function6(col1, col2, ...)
  
          due_date

from the_view
where ...
and ...
order by nvl(some_function(colum, colum1, colum2, ...,), due_date)

The select clause returns about ????? rows which all have to be sorted....
(Yes there are 6 calls to functions in the select clause)

The last statement in the alert log refers to this statement. As far as I understand, sorting requires a lot of memory, and if sorting is using a function, each result must be stored before the sorting can start.

By the way I'm using Oracle 7.3.4.5.0 on a NT4 machine with 2,1 G pm and 4 process. At the time when the sort happened, we had about 120 sessions in the database.

/Jonas

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Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
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Author: Jonas A Wetterberg
  INET: jonas.a.wetterberg_at_manpower.se

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