There's a slick little trick:

LEN(REPLACE(string, '-', '--')) - LEN(string)

-Mike

>Hi,
>
>I would like to find out how many times the
>- appears in a string....
>
>Is there an efficient way to find this out.
>
>Therefore,
>
>my string could be.
>
>C-X-AB1515-02-01
>
>
>I want to find out the number of times the - appears in the string.
>
>Thanks,
>
>a