EXECUTE IMMEDIATE and library cache latch contention

Dear DBAs,

am I correct when I think that excessive use of EXECUTE IMMEDIATEs can lead to library cache latch contention? Oracle's documentation on EI states that it re-prepares the statement every time no matter if it uses bind variables or not - does this mean that each time this statement is re-inserted into library cache (and thus, the latch is acquired) even it has no literals?

I am trying to figure out the source of library cache latch contention on one of our production databases running 8.1.6.2. Application extensively uses PL/SQL to generate HTML (actually, it's a web application) and we have a lot of PL/SQL functions with EIs. Does it make sense to replace direct EI with its procedural counterpart which will use DBMS_SQL? Or I am wrong at this and direct EI of the statement with only bind vars inside will enter the library cache only once?

thanks in advance,

   Bob.

-- 
Vladimir Zakharychev (bob@dpsp-yes.com)                http://www.dpsp-yes.com
Dynamic PSP(tm) - the first true RAD toolkit for Oracle-based internet applications.
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