executing procedure in select ...

We are running Informix V 7.12 ( Sinix V 5.42 RM 400) On line client application in Gupta 5.0.2 comm. via Informix Net V 5.0.1 WD1 Has anyone experience with executing procedures via select statement select proc_name() from table_name We wanted to do such sequence of sql commands: 1. to find a row with primary_key=new_value 2. if row does not exist insert new row with new_value of primary key 3. if row exist do nothing returning value - number of rows from step 1. i got simplified our procedure : create procedure proc_name(new_value char(4)) returning smallint;define num_of_rows smallint; select count(*) into num_of_rows from tab1 where column1=new_value; IF num_of_rows=0 THEN insert into tab1 (column1) values (new_value); END IF return num_of_rows; end procedure; We had no problems while using execute procedure proc_name(..) returning ...But we can not use this from Gupta while we wanted to send several entry parameters to procedure and getting return value . Problems concerning executing procedures from Gupta were discussed several month ago and conclusions and solutions are known for us. We have decided to try this via select select proc_name(new_value) from tabxy ( no relations between tab1 and tabxy) and we got error message: insert into tab1(column1) values (new_value);exception : looking for handler SQL error = -675 ISAM error = 0 error string = = ""exception : no appropriate handler Description of the error is clear to us , but we didn't use DML statements is these circumstances. We also tested using temporary table (not in foreach ... end foreach) - with the same results . Our conclusion is that no insert,update,delete statements ( no problems with select ) are allowed while executing procedure as we did it . we appreciate any opinions , experience. P.S we do not want to invoke discussion how to do it in different way . Thanks katarina -- Katarina Hamzova Voice : +42 7 5384324 SWH s.r.o Bratislava Slovakia Internet : Katarina.Hamzova@swh.sk