Many of you will doubtless remember the long-running "TO_NUMBER" discussion that encompassed the topic of when/whether it's ok to merge sub and main queries. I put together a short article on the topic, which I've just today sent out to my Oracle-article list. If you're interested, you can grab the article from the list archives at: http://five.pairlist.net/pipermail/oracle-article/2004/000012.html I've talked to a number of SQL experts, some of whom were gracious enough to allow me to quote them in the article. It's interesting that there is not universal agreement on the issue. Whatever side you fall on, I think (I hope) you'll find the article enlightening. If nothing else, it's good to be aware of the arguments on both sides. Best regards, Jonathan Gennick --- Brighten the corner where you are http://Gennick.com * 906.387.1698 * mailto:jonathan@xxxxxxxxxxx Join the Oracle-article list and receive one article on Oracle technologies per month by email. To join, visit http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/oracle-article, or send email to Oracle-article-request@xxxxxxxxxxx and include the word "subscribe" in either the subject or body. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------