Hi Friends, I am having a database with varchar2(255) columns named title, extra_info1,extra_info2,extra_info3 . I want to search all these columns with a search string given to me via a form ,I am using PERL, the string will be like +abhishek jain -abcd "this should be exact" As you can see the word/words prefixed with + should be there somewhere in the above columns in database ,with - should not be there and within "" they should be exact phrase. I want a sol. for this, Pl. help me how to make a search queruy will it be in regex or simople like and not like , i will be having about 1 lac records in the database. I have adequate exp with mysql but not with Oracle , pl. help i need to implement this on Oracle. Thanks, Abhishek jain