[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Dave_A [/i]
[B]1) If you issue the update command from a SQL prompt, you will get the message

nnn rows updated
[/B][/QUOTE]

And how SQL*Plus (or any other tool) gets this information? Exactly the same way as shawish_sababa has sugested: by isuing (behind the screen) the query:

SELECT SQL%ROWCOUNT FROM dual;

You can do the same in any application.