Peter, You might want to try dbms_utility.format_error_backtrace as follows: declare a integer; begin a := 'ABC'; exception when others then dbms_output.put_line(DBMS_UTILITY.format_error_backtrace); end; / ORA-06512: at line 3 PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. Richard Goulet Senior Oracle DBA/Na Team Leader -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Schauss, Peter (ESS) Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2011 3:13 PM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: PLSQL exception handling Oracle 11.2.0.1.0 (Linux x86-64). I am writing stored procedure which copies information from one table to another, doing some transformations in the process. I am using the %rowtype construct for the fetches and inserts and doing a large number of assignment statements in the form: rec1.col1 := rec2.cola; Since there is a possibility of type conversion errors in some cases, I need to be able to trap errors and identify the offending column in the input table. The Oracle documentation suggests something like this: step_num:= <n> rec1.col1 := rec2.cola; step_num:=<n+1> rec1.col2 :=rec2.colb; exception when <error type> dbms_output.put_line('error at '||step_num); raise; end; Is there a better way for me to identify the location of the error? Thanks, Peter Schauss -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l