I'm using PL/SQL because he said he is in PL/SQL. And since he is already in PL/SQL and wants to know whether a given statement actually hit any records, it is much easier for him to test a numeric variable with 0 or !0 in it than to test a string with 'No Record' or 'Some Records' in it.

Make sense?

However, if the desired outcome was to simply display the values 'No Record' or 'Some Records', then doing it in straight SQL, as you have, would obviously have been the preferred method.

- Chris