You should never use a sequence if what you want is an assured serial number with no gap. There are a number of ways to loose a number in a given sequence..... RF Robert G. Freeman Author: Blog: http://robertgfreeman.blogspot.com OCP: Oracle Database 11g Administrator Certified Professional Study Guide (Sybex) Oracle Database 11g New Features (Oracle Press) Portable DBA: Oracle (Oracle Press) Oracle Database 10g New Features (Oracle Press) Oracle9i RMAN Backup and Recovery (Oracle Press) Oracle9i New Features (Oracle Press) Other various titles out of print now... The LDS Church is looking for DBA's. You do have to be a Church member in good standing. A lot of kind people write me, concerned I may be breaking the law by saying you have to be a Church member. It's legal I promise! :-) -- -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l