Cheng, First, get rid of the chr(10). Secondly, did you try and debug the sql statement you are generating? Did you try and run this through sqlplus? Insert into kk select 20070125 17:11:47 from dual; Does this look like a sql statement that will work? Give it a try and see what happens. Tom -------------------------------------------------------- This transmission may contain confidential, proprietary, or privileged information which is intended solely for use by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, dissemination, copying or distribution of this transmission or its attachments is strictly prohibited. In addition, unauthorized access to this transmission may violate federal or State law, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1985. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and delete the transmission and its attachments. ________________________________ From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of LS Cheng Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 11:13 AM To: oracle-l Subject: dynamic sql and dates Hi I am using dynamic sql in a stored procedure which inserts dates into a table. The procedure is as follows: create or replace procedure ins_date is l_date date := sysdate; l_sql varchar2(1000); begin l_sql := 'insert into kk ' || chr(10) || 'select '|| l_date ||' from dual'; dbms_output.put_line(l_sql); execute immediate l_sql; end; / kk is a table with a column (datatype date) whenever I execute I get this error SQL> exec ins_date insert into kk select 20070125 17:11:47 from dual BEGIN ins_date; END; * ERROR at line 1: ORA-00923: FROM keyword not found where expected ORA-06512: at "LSC.INS_DATE", line 9 ORA-06512: at line 1 If I change the procedure to create or replace procedure ins_date is l_date date := sysdate; l_sql varchar2(1000); begin l_sql := 'insert into kk ' || chr(10) || 'select sysdate from dual'; dbms_output.put_line(l_sql); execute immediate l_sql; end; / it runs perfectly exec ins_date insert into kk select sysdate from dual PL/SQL procedure successfully completed. Anyone know what can be wrong? TIA -- LSC