I agree it would but I am not certain how cleanly it could be implemented. I
doubt it would be too tough since all the mechanisms are already in place.

I like the idea but I think there are some chinks in it.

Only problem I see is in the case of multiple record operations like an
update or delete. AFFECTED would always be an aggregate but would you then
have to start "fetching" the update process along or get some kind of
aggregate on the operation for other columns.

It only makes sense to have the RETURNING if it is a singleton operation or
if you are fetching from a cursor. using BLR however you could make an
update that did return a record for each iteration of its loop. That idea
just seems a little extreme and complex to me. For something like that, I
would write a stored procedure to handle.

Jason Wharton
CPS - Mesa AZ
http://www.ibobjects.com