>My question , If this statement put inside a trigger . >Then how would a trigger pass the returning value to >my application ? The returning clause should not be used inside the trigger but in your = application... SQL> create table t (n number); SQL> create sequence s; SQL> create or replace trigger t before insert on t for each row 2 begin 3 select s.nextval into :new.n from dual; 4 end; 5 / SQL> variable n number SQL> insert into t values (null) returning n into :n; SQL> print n N ---------- 1 SQL> insert into t values (null) returning n into :n; SQL> print n N ---------- 2 HTH Chris -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l