Oracle9i Database brought support for ANSI date and timestamp literals. For example: SELECT DATE '2006-03-15' FROM dual; SELECT TIMESTAMP '2006-03-15 10:52:30.99' FROM dual; etc. The format of such literals is fixed. You should indeed get an error from DATE '01-JUN-06'. Best regards, Jonathan Gennick --- Brighten the corner where you are http://Gennick.com * 906.387.1698 * mailto:jonathan@xxxxxxxxxxx Thursday, June 15, 2006, 5:52:38 PM, genegurevich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (genegurevich@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote: gdc> Everybody: gdc> This is part of the SQL that I see in the SQL_AREA (oracle v9) gdc> between DATE '01-JUN-06' and DATE '14-JUN-06' and T5.BUS_UNT_CDE1='MS' and gdc> I have never seen the DATE keyword used like that before. Is that something gdc> that was added in Oracle9. gdc> I tried executing it manually but it keeps failing. gdc> any insight? gdc> thank you gdc> Gene Gurevich gdc> -- gdc> //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l