In Hellenic (Greek/Western) cultural history, the Oracles of Apollo at Delphi are arguably the preeminent reference of "Oracle." Those were alleged virgin females sitting in a contraption that looked sort of like a lifeguard chair in a temple built over a fissure whence spewed a natural gaseous hallucinogenic cocktail. Thus dosed, the "Oracle of Delphi" tended to give 60's hippie/yippie style answers (but in Greek, I suppose) to lightly dosed supplicants. So I'm thinkin' Oracle is a high flyin' she, which partly explains why she thinks a zero length string is a null value but simultaneously understands that a numeric zero is not a null. Regards, mwf -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Wolfgang Breitling Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 2:44 PM To: AmihayG@xxxxxxxxx Cc: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Q: oracle data files & performance <snip> Counterquestion - is Oracle a He or a She - or an It or a hermaphrodite <snip> -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l