>>thanks for the referenece tore - not bedtime reading. since this data is eventually imported into a table, it looks like an easier task would be to catch it once it's imported and replace any single character entries with 0+existing character.
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>RegEx is a really nice technology, but it is not easy to learn without a good tutor. Personally I only use it a few times, and spent a lot of time with trial and error before I got it working.

...and then a year later you start plowing your disk for the old code where you did it, because you need it again...