Best possible way to insert and get returned ids

Question:

Is an INSERT command with a SELECT statement in the RETURNING * parameter faster than say an INSERT and then a SELECT? Does the RETURNING * parameter simply amount to a normal SELECT command on the added rows? We need to basically insert a lot of rows as fast as possible, and get the ids that were added. The number of rows we are inserting is dynamic and is not of fixed length.

Thanks,
-Jason

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