you mean something like this (assuming your plans is stored in test.txt), probably easier than vi ->cat test.txt | cut -c 1-73 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Id | Operation | Name | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | | 1 | HASH UNIQUE | | ? Also see dbms_xplan.diff_plan_awr or dbms_xplan.diff_plan_cursor if you wish in 11.2 Raj -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l