Well, the suggested syntax below would make matching up a long column list to the provided values/variables a lot easier and would likely help prevent listing 100 columns to be inserted but only including 99 variables in the values list. I think I would require the use of the correct column name instead of any type of positional col-n style labeling. -- Mark D Powell -- Phone (313) 592-5148 ________________________________ From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jared Still Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 12:04 PM To: chet.justice@xxxxxxxxx Cc: oracle-l Subject: Re: Speaking of New Features Very Perlish. I like it. :) Jared Still Certifiable Oracle DBA and Part Time Perl Evangelist On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 6:37 PM, chet justice <chet.justice@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: Any thoughts on the "new" syntax for INSERT statements below? INSERT INTO my_table ( id => seq.nexval, create_date => SYSDATE, update_date => SYSDATE, col1 => 'A', col2 => 'SOMETHING', col3 => 'SOMETHING', col4 => 'SOMETHING', col5 => 'SOMETHING', col6 => 'SOMETHING', col7 => 'SOMETHING', col8 => 'SOMETHING', col9 => 'SOMETHING', col10 => 'SOMETHING', col11 => 'SOMETHING', col12 => 'SOMETHING', col13 => 'SOMETHING', col14 => 'SOMETHING' ); Thought of one day while trying to clean up (make human readable) someone else's code. I would either get too many values or not enough. After copying the INSERT columns and subsequent VALUES clause into an Excel spreadsheet to compare them side by side, I thought, hey, what about named notation? Anyway, I created the "Idea" on Oracle Mix here <https://mix.oracle.com/ideas/94278-position-insert-syntax> if you are inclined to, one way or another, to vote. chet -- chet justice www.oraclenerd.com