Roger that on the nvarchr2 or varchar2, like you I have seen the "n" data types don't get a value printed in the trace so I figured that the data is being interpreted as a varchar2 not an nvarchar2. It would be interesting to see the SQL, the explain plan and the stat lines of the SQL being run, it may well be that a data type conversion is taking place, although it seems odd since Oracle by default always converts the SRTING type (varchar2 in this case) to a NUMBER and not a NUMBER to a STRING. So I don't think this is an implicit conversion. But with out the code we are guessing. - Ric -----Original Message----- From: freek D'Hooge [mailto:freek.dhooge@xxxxxxxxx] Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2008 6:25 AM To: Ric Van Dyke; contactarul@xxxxxxxxx; oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: 10046 trace.. bind question Hi, oacdty=01 could mean varchar2 or nvarchar2. There is a huge difference between the two as if a bind value is passed as a nvarchar2 and the column datatype is a varchar2 then a implicit conversion is done, meaning that an index will not be used. I have found that (at least on 9i) in case of a nvarchar2 datatype the bind value was not shown in the trace file (but the value length was). Regards, Freek D'Hooge Uptime Oracle Database Administrator email: freek.dhooge@xxxxxxxxx tel +32(0)3 451 23 82 http://www.uptime.be disclaimer ________________________________________ From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ric Van Dyke Sent: zondag 24 augustus 2008 3:24 To: contactarul@xxxxxxxxx; oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: 10046 trace.. bind question Yes a 1 is a varchar2 data type. You can see these data types in the: Oracle® Call Interface Programmer's Guide, 10g Release 2 (10.2) Part Number B14250-02 Chapter 3, Data Types, table 3-1. What ever program is sending that in is not sending it as a number. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l