How to check for a valid connection

Greetings,
does anyone know if there is a way that a Pro*C program can check if it still has a valid connection to an Oracle database?
I have this program that is supposed to run 24 hrs, 7 days a week and handle as many ORA-errors as possible by itself. So, if something goes amiss I have to check if the connection is still valid or if I have to make a new connect. How can I do this?
There are several ORA-messages indicating a lost connection, but if a connection has dropped because of network failure or instance shutdown you can't be sure about how this will be reported to your application when it tries an SQL statement.

Thanks in advance.
Roland Svensson
roland.svensson_at_mbox200.swipnet.se Received on Tue Oct 07 1997 - 00:00:00 CDT