Your question on trim for allbase/sql: With the G3 release of ALLBASE/SQL and IMAGE/SQL, the supported SQL syntax has been enhanced to include the following string manipulation functions: UPPER, LOWER, POSITION, INSTR, TRIM, LTRIM and RTRIM. These string functions allow you to manipulate or examine the CHAR and VARCHAR values within the SQL syntax, allowing for more sophisticated queries and data manipulation commands to be formed. These string functions were designed to be compatible with functions specified in the ANSI SQL '92 standard and functions used in ORACLE. In cases where the ANSI SQL '92 standard and the ORACLE functions were not compatible (such as the LTRIM and RTRIM in ORACLE versus TRIM in the ANSI standard), both versions where implemented. The specifications for each of these functions follows. Ltrim LTRIM function trims the characters specified in charset from the beginning of the string stringexpr . Syntax [ LTRIM ( stringexpr, charset )] Rtrim RTRIM function trims the characters specified in charset from the end of the string stringexpr . Syntax [ RTRIM (stringexpr, charset )] Trim TRIM function allows you to strip the characters specified in charset from the beginning and/or the end of the string stringexpr . If charset is not specified, then blank characters would be stripped from stringexpr . Syntax [ TRIM ({ LEADING | TRAILING | BOTH} (charset FROM stringexpr)] Examples: Example 1 SELECT LOWER (OWNER) || '.' || LOWER (NAME) FROM SYSTEM.TABLE WHERE NAME = UPPER ('vendors'); Returns "purchdb .vendors " Example 2 SELECT POSITION ('world' IN 'hello world') FROM SYSTEM.TABLE WHERE NAME = UPPER('vendors'); Returns the numeric value 7 Example 3 SELECT INSTR ('hello world hello world', 'world', 5, 2) FROM SYSTEM.TABLE WHERE NAME = UPPER('vendors'); Returns the numeric value 19 (starting position of the second occurrence of the string 'world') Example 4 SELECT * FROM SYSTEM.TABLE WHERE NAME = LTRIM ('VENDORS?*???***','?*') AND OWNER = 'PURCHDB'; Returns the system table entry for PURCHDB.VENDORS Example 5 SELECT TRIM (BOTH '?*' FROM '??**?*hello ?* world???*') FROM SYSTEM.TABLE WHERE NAME = 'VENDORS'; Returns 'hello?* world'. the 6.0 communicator has more details: http://docs.hp.com/en/30216-90269/index.html hope this helps.. Cathlene Mc Rae HP Response Center * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, * * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *