Dyn sql execute immediate A plsql block returning sql%rowcount of rows inserted

Question

I would like to get the number of rows inserted in a dynamic sql statement like following.
execute immediate
'begin insert into a(c1,c2,c3)
(select ac1,ac2,ac3 from ac where ac1=:thekey
UNION select tc1,tc2,tc3 from tc where tc1=:otherkey); end;' using in key1,in key2;
I have tried per the oracle8i dyn sql chapter in doc RETURN sql%rowcount won't compile.
also add this to statement 'returning sql%rowcount into :rowcount'
no luck.
any ideas.?
thanks.

Answer 1

Quick comment first - I'm not sure why you are even using dynamic SQL here. There is nothing dynamic about your statement. It is equivalent to just:
insert into a (c1, c2, c3)
  select ac1, ac2, ac3
    from ac
   where ac1 = key1
  UNION
  select tc1, tc2, tc3
    from tc
   where tc1 = key2;Unless you are really dynamically changing a table or column name here and just didn't show it in your example, you certainly don't want the overhead of NDS for this insert in this situation.
In any case, you just need to evaluate SQL%ROWCOUNT in the next statement.
insert ...;
if sql%rowcount = 0 then
  -- nothing was inserted
end if;