>>anyone any ideas > If yes you should you have to use. > > SELECT first_name,work_email FROM tb_contacts WHERE > tb_contacts.work_email <>'' > AND > tb_contacts.work_email IS NOT NULL; > See what happens with SELECT first_name, work_email, LENGTH(COALESCE(work_email, '')) FROM tb_contacts WHERE LENGTH(TRIM(COALESCE(work_email, ''))) = 0 ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate subscribe-nomail command to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx so that your message can get through to the mailing list cleanly