Thank you for the info Paul, but I have a feeling that isn't what I need in this case.

Here is the issue (without providing actual code, can't).

We have a stored procedure that uses numerous functions to return Index values from various tables. If the function does not find a match in a table, it inserts the data into that table and creates a new index value in the process. (Yes, I know that functions in MS SQL Server won't allow this, but Oracle allows functions to update tables.)

Problem we are having is that when there are two (or more) duplicate streams (configuration entries) and the entry does not exist initially we get duplicate entries in the table. What this means is that for the duplicate streams, each has a unique index value instead of using the same index value.

Yes, confusining. Wish I could explain in more detail but hands are tied on that one.

One solution would be to put a contraint on the table to prevent a duplicate entry, unfortunately not possible at this time as we have multiple duplicate entries in the table currently and we need to clean those up first, but it is a time consuming task as each index value must be consecutive (no breaks allowed, and again I really can't explain why).

The problem, when stepping through the stored procedure in debug mode, it works properly. When executed from the application or PL/SQL Developer normally, it fails.

Really looks like parallelism, or something similar.

ANY ideas or suggestions at what to look at or change or something, please let me know.

I am new to Oracle (12+ years SQL Server 6.5 - 2008), and the other developer I am working with is also not an Oracle developer either (SQL Server 4.2).