That's funny. I've seen exactly the opposite when using NULL to mean current of anything. Cheers Nuno Souto nsouto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Foote" <richard.foote@xxxxxxxxxxx> > I've seen on quite a number of occasions the damage that "artificial" > values > can do in stuffing up Oracle's assumption of range value distributions and > hence Oracle's ability to select an appropriate execution plan. > > Setting end dates to some distant future is full of dangers and is a > classic > example. > > Beware indeed !! > -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l