It looks like what you are trying to do is a top-n query. This explains how to do them. http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/misc/top-n-queries.php If you were using 12c, you could use the new syntax. http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/12c/row-limiting-clause-for-top-n-queries-12cr1.php Cheers Tim... -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l