>>>>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.
>>>
>>>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...
>
>Yes, I use code reference a lot... :-)

We're getting somewhere :). So you have both problems like I do: can't remember all the rules for regular expressions, and also can't remember where was that code where I made them work last year...