I don't want to run this into the ground but ... It appears that the added parse time (I'm guessing, too lazy to trace it), when sent in as an individual statement, accounts for the majority of the extra time with Stephane's example. When both ways are put into procedures and the procedures called 1,000 times, the existence check approach runs 1,000 times in 2.00 seconds, and the other in 2.05 seconds. This isn't a true rigorous test since I'm just calling with the same parameters every time and there is no memory flushing going on. But I figure it's a good enough test for government work or space shuttle work. Ok. I think I'm done now. Unless somebody comes up with something amazing. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------