Hi Carefully read this text... >On Fri, 18 Feb 2005 16:42:34 +0100, Christian Antognini [snip] >> Notice that you cannot alter the database if it stores tables with = =3D >> TIMESTAMP WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE columns. And then give a look to these examples... A) 9i SQL> select * from v$version where rownum =3D 1; BANNER ---------------------------------------------------------------- Oracle9i Enterprise Edition Release 9.2.0.5.0 - Production SQL> ALTER DATABASE SET TIME_ZONE =3D 'EST'; ALTER DATABASE SET TIME_ZONE =3D 'EST' * ERROR at line 1: ORA-02231: missing or invalid option to ALTER DATABASE B) 10g SQL> select * from v$version where rownum =3D 1; BANNER ---------------------------------------------------------------- Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.1.0.3.0 - Prod SQL> ALTER DATABASE SET TIME_ZONE =3D 'EST'; ALTER DATABASE SET TIME_ZONE =3D 'EST' * ERROR at line 1: ORA-30079: cannot alter database timezone when database has TIMESTAMP = WITH LOCAL TIME ZONE columns As you can see the error generated in 9i is completely wrong! They = recognized the problem and fixed it in 10g. HTH Chris -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l