>>I do get an "inconsistent datatypes" error against an Oracle 8i database, but it does work in 9i.
>
>That is the one. So, I guess there would be imediate advantage to going to CLOB. Other that better now in development. Than later when live should we go up to the next versions.

I have access to both 8i and 9i database here, and I have confirmed your findings and mine. CLOBs basically behave just like LONG types in 8i, but work just like I originally explained in my first reply. Your NVL(TO_CHAR()) trick also works in 9i but fails in 8i. At least in 8i, you can still have more than 1 CLOB per table.