Thanks for the input. I am learning much from this forum. I didn't consider that it might work if varchar, since most of the tables I work with use char() fields. I have on more than one occasion tested an update query similar to what is being attempted here to find that if I had run it, it would have wiped out part or all of the data because I forgot the RTRIM(). I guess that is another advantage besides smaller tables for the varchar data type.