Yes, as is AQ I believe, My wording 'we don't use aq' was careless, since it is used internally by Oracle a bit like saying 'We don't use clusters or IOTs'. Untrue technically - though probably true in 'plain english'. -- Niall Litchfield Oracle DBA http://www.niall.litchfield.dial.pipex.com -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l