SQL: RETURNING gives you the row you just wrote

INSERT INTO orders (customer_id, total)
VALUES (7, 99.00)
RETURNING id, created_at;

UPDATE orders SET status = 'PAID'
 WHERE id = 8821 AND status = 'PENDING'
RETURNING id, status;              -- empty result means it was not PENDING

DELETE FROM session WHERE expires_at < now() RETURNING id;

id   | created_at
8822 | 2026-08-25 09:12:44+00

-- The UPDATE ... RETURNING pattern is a compare-and-set: an empty result
-- tells you the guard failed, without a second query and without a lock.
--
-- PostgreSQL, SQLite and MariaDB support RETURNING. MySQL does not - use
-- LAST_INSERT_ID() there.