>>>Vlad, out of the several replies I got from you I'll answer to this one:
>>>
>>>Since one of the main programming directives is to make the impossible possible there should be a way to do this fast and accurately, just for the fun of it; secondly, I am sure if post your question in the UT, there would be probably dozens of cases and scenarios that developers could use it. In my specific case I'd like to know this value so I'd be able to know at any given time the amount of records locked, so that'd give me and idea of at what moment in the day the traffic is heavier, therefore allowing me to find a time when I can decide to have the users to log off for maintenance and update reasons; I could also give you a couple other reasons, but that's not the point of my question.
>>
>>You're right that probably everybody can find a dozen of reasons. I asked you because I wanted to know your reason :) (I never really needed this info). Your answer is interesting. Thanks.
>>
>>Vlad
>
>For Gilberto's scenario wouldn't it be better to maintain a log table of users and login/logout times that could be queried since locked records are not necessarily an indication of the traffic using the application?
>
>Bill

I believe this is very discutable. It also depends on what locking mechanism he is using. Because the lock time can be extremly short, so difficult to "catch". I don't see how you can use the log you propose for Gilberto's goal. A user can login and do nothing for hours/days, but he'll appear as "active". Unless you have a mechanism to kick out any inactive user after a certain time.

Vlad