[kmdupree]

RETURNING * is a clever way to do this. What is this * from affected_rows syntax you're using here? Any chance you have a link to the docs that describes this?

[AaronFriel]

The affected_rows identifier is the name of the common table expression, they're just doing:

    select *
      from affected_rows

With some additional columns that happen to be provided by postgres and/or a parameter to the SQL statement.