Hello. Today I used a shell call in psql to save the runtime date in a psql variable and use this to dynamically create tables with date encoded in table name. For some reason however, the psql \echo command can't expand the date though it does expand in the calls to the backend. See example below; jsievers@jsievers# = \set date `date '+%Y%m%d'` jsievers@jsievers# = \echo :date 20060524 jsievers@jsievers# = \echo foo_:date foo_:date <-- Was expecting this to expand... see below jsievers@jsievers# = create table foo_:date(); CREATE TABLE jsievers@jsievers# = \dt List of relations Schema | Name | Type | Owner --------+--------------+-------+---------- public | foo_20060524 | table | jsievers (1 row) Seems there's a bit of asymmetry in the way psql evaluates the :variables. FYI -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jerry Sievers 305 854-3001 (home) WWW ECommerce Consultant 305 321-1144 (mobile http://www.JerrySievers.com/