Well, just as an aside, it *is* the definition of certain isolation levels that such functionatlity exist. The READ UNCOMMITTED isolation level, as defined in the ANSI SQL-92 standards allows such functionality. It is simply that Oracle does not support said functionality (same as it does not yet support the ANSI-92 join syntax, although that is slated for 9i, so I hear). SQLServer also supports this isolation level (at least in 6.5 it did :) ).

- Chris