Friends : I need to identify in a column if the 3 first characters are about datatye number. Is there another easy way to do it ? I used the follow instruction : where ascii(substr(columname,1,1)) between 47 and 57 and ascii(substr(columname,2,1)) between 47 and 57 and ascii(substr(columname,3,1)) between 47 and 57 Regards Eriovaldo -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l