You can use the chr function. Declare a variable as a number starting with 65 for capital letter A and then you can increment the variable by 1 for each successive letter until 90 similarly 97 -122 for lowercase letters. Select chr(65) from dual From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Taylor, Chris David Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 10:21 AM To: 'Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx' Subject: Increment an alphabetic variable in a PL/SQL loop? Hey how can we increment an alphabetic variable in PL/SQL? Let's say I have var1 = 'A' for the first pass, but for the second pass, I want it to autoincrement to var1='B' and ultimately to 'Z'. I'm searching but its hard to find the right search terms to give me what I want. Chris Taylor Sr. Oracle DBA Ingram Barge Company Nashville, TN 37205 Office: 615-517-3355 Cell: 615-354-4799 Email: chris.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and may also be privileged. If you are not the named recipient, please notify the sender immediately and delete the contents of this message without disclosing the contents to anyone, using them for any purpose, or storing or copying the information on any medium.