Raja, A major reason might be that you actually (probably) do not understand what you're doing. Please read some fine manuals, and refrein from (ab)using this forum as a tutorial. Regards, Carel-Jan === If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. (Derek Bok) === > > the below did work fine: > > declare > x varchar2(100); > begin > execute immediate 'select > hospital_id||to_char(trnx_date,'||'''||mmddyyyy||'''||')||patient_case_type > from SJHS_ADT_ACT_TRXMST_BAK2 ' into x; > dbms_output.put_line(x); > end; > > > > this executed successfully with teh MMDDYYYY format however, the result > seems to > be strage with a single pipe: > > The result is: > > SJHS|09102004|ER > > > Actually the pipe should not be there, it should be: SJHS09102004ER > > what couldbe the reason. > > > David Sharples <davidsharples@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > the semi colon goes after the final ' in the statement. > > Plus that query is a little silly anyway > > > On 1/24/06, raja rao <raja4list@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > when the below is run i am getting the error. can someone help me : > > begin > execute immediate ' select sysdate from dual ;' > end ; > > > > > > > --------------------------------- > Yahoo! Photos > Ring in the New Year with Photo Calendars. Add photos, events, holidays, > whatever. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l