I think this should do nicely select regexp_replace('Start net counter : 203542, 201282','^.+: *([0-9]+),.*$','\1') from dual; Cheers, Flado Vladimir Andreev Oracle+PLM Consultant On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 21:45, Jaromir D.B. Nemec <jaromir@xxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote: > Hello, > > Start net counter : 26798, 24794 >> >> I need the number after the : but before the comma, for example, 26798 >> in the last record >> > > if the prefix string is constant you may save one instr... > > select substr(eventtext,1,instr(eventtext,',')-1) from ( > select replace(eventtext,'Start net counter : ',null) eventtext from > your_table > where eventtext like 'Start net counter : %' > ) > > regards, > > Jaromir > > > > -- > //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l > > >