the below did work fine: declare x varchar2(100); begin execute immediate 'select hospital_id||to_char(trnx_date,'||'''||mmddyyyy||'''||')||patient_case_type from SJHS_ADT_ACT_TRXMST_BAK2 ' into x; dbms_output.put_line(x); end; this executed successfully with teh MMDDYYYY format however, the result seems to be strage with a single pipe: The result is: SJHS|09102004|ER Actually the pipe should not be there, it should be: SJHS09102004ER what couldbe the reason. David Sharples <davidsharples@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: the semi colon goes after the final ' in the statement. Plus that query is a little silly anyway On 1/24/06, raja rao <raja4list@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: when the below is run i am getting the error. can someone help me : begin execute immediate ' select sysdate from dual ;' end ; --------------------------------- Yahoo! Photos Ring in the New Year with Photo Calendars. Add photos, events, holidays, whatever.