Post those in 2 new threads [one question per thread] in the Oracle forum. I think Oracle has the equivalent of substr() or str() function, I just do not remember which or the exact syntax. All my ref books are in Dallas, and I will not get back there until Tuesday. Tim Mc is also very good at providing answers and monitors the Oracle forum as well.

Bulk inserts -- I have used VFP remote views and an Oracle utility called SQL Loader that works exceptionally well. Again all that stuff for the loader is back at my Dallas Office.

>Well, how to do a "bulk insert" (in MSSQL2K speak) in Oracle 7? Now that you've whetted my appetite by showing me how to get those new columns in there (along with the sequence and trigger stuph), I guess my last help-beg is for info on how I can get my stuff imported into the new table with the new columns.
>
>If this was VFP, I'd make and empy table and add a stored proc or trigger to get the lastupdated/datetime/primary key in there. Then I'd do my SQL on the base table into a cursor, then I'd scan through the cursor, inserting into the new table so those new columns would get populated.
>
>I guess what I'm asking for is how to accomplish the same kind of thing in Oracle.
>
>One more thing. :) I have a column with a sample value "12-001-0001". I only want the "001", and have been playing with variations of SQL to get it, but I haven't nailed it yet. If it was VFP I'd do a substr() or a right() and a left(), but there seems to be no such thing in Oracle.
>
>?
>
>Thanks.
>
>>>The only problem I have now is that I
>>>don't have anything in the newly-added
>>>columns, since my trigger is made after
>>>the data gets in there. I tried to put
>>>the trigger and sequence at the top of
>>>the .prg but that didn't work (I guess
>>>the table has to exist first).
>>
>>Correct. The table has to exist. Was there another question here?