Publish pending stats

Hello All,

I have performed below steps to get execution plan from the pending stats for a particular table:

1.set_table_publish_prefs to false

2.gather_table_stats

3.checked pending_stats and i see them.

4.set session level use_optimizer_pending_stats to true

5.got new execution plan

Now...i decided not to publish(use) pending stats but leave the pending stats as it is.

Question:

->can i JUST set_table_publish_prefs to TRUE( so the auto gather stats can publish stats when run) without executing dbms_stats.publish_pending_stats('ownname', 'tablename') and leave pending stats in database as it is.....so in case i decide to use it sometime later i can publish it.