Is there a way you know of to take a literal like *1*8*1 and turn it into the result of 1 times 8 times 1 (8)? I'm trying to do this in a connect by prior sql inside a stored procedure. I'm using the following to get the literal: sys_connect_by_path((Qty_Per),'*') Just curious if there is some easy way to do this, otherwise I will most likely write a function to do this. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l