What is cx_Oracle? cx_Oracle is a Python extension module that allows access to Oracle and conforms to the Python database API 2.0 specifications with a few exceptions. Where do I get it? http://cx-oracle.sourceforge.net NOTE: I have changed providers. Please update any links. What's new? 1) Added methods open(), close(), isopen() and getchunksize() in order to improve performance of reading/writing LOB values in chunks. 2) Fixed support for native doubles and floats in Oracle 10g; added new type NATIVE_FLOAT to allow specification of a variable of that specific type where desired. Thanks to D.R. Boxhoorn for pointing out the fact that this was not working properly when the arraysize was anything other than 1. 3) When calling connection.begin(), only create a new tranasction handle if one is not already associated with the connection. Thanks to Andreas Mock for discovering this and for Amaury Forgeot d'Arc for diagnosing the problem and pointing the way to a solution. 4) Added attribute cursor.rowfactory which allows a method to be called for each row that is returned; this is about 20% faster than calling the method in Python using the idiom [method(*r) for r in cursor]. 5) Attempt to locate an Oracle installation by looking at the PATH if the environment variable ORACLE_HOME is not set; this is of primary use on Windows where this variable should not normally be set. 6) Added support for autocommit mode as requested by Ian Kelly. 7) Added support for connection.stmtcachesize which allows for both reading and writing the size of the statement cache size. This parameter can make a huge difference with the length of time taken to prepare statements. Added support for setting the statement tag when preparing a statement. Both of these were requested by Bjorn Sandberg who also provided an initial patch. 8) When copying the value of a variable, copy the return code as well. Anthony Tuininga