Rachel, If you create a materialized view (MV) locally for the remote table, "... AS SELECT * FROM ...@xxxxxx " but with predicate 'WHERE ... AND 1=0', does the metadata on this MV show you the column size difference? > > What happens if you just try and copy the remote > table to a local > > table > > and then merge between the two local tables? > > > > that's actually what I was doing..... > I have tried the above technique, for many nefarious purposes, and just wondering if it would work in your case, too. Greetings. :-) Mike Thomas __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------