SQL problem with Oracle. Please help!

Hi! I am having trouble to get the following SQL statement to be excuted. Oracle (8.1.5) just sits there and seems to wait. -----snip---- select count(template) as used from gastbuch where template=1 and not(id in (select id from gastbuch where userid=25445)) ----snip----- If I just do: -----snip---- select count(template) as used from gastbuch where template=1 -----snip---- I get a large number, just as expected. If I do: -----snip---- select count(template) as used from gastbuch where template=1 and id in (select id from gastbuch where userid=25445) -----snip---- Oracle returns 1, which is correct. -----snip---- select id from gastbuch where userid=25445 -----snip---- returns three numbers. If I give the following SQL: -----snip---- select count(template) as used from gastbuch where template=1 and id in (123,345,678) -----snip---- it works but I don't get the result I want. As soon as I put the not back in, it doesn't work anymore. So: why doesn't the not work?!? I tried about 10 different permutations of and/not and dozens of ways to place the parentheses (spelling?) to no effect. I hope I did make myself clear. Please help! Karsten -- Why do we have to hide from the police, daddy? Because we use emacs, son. They use vi. ----------------------------- mailto:k.dambekalns@tu-bs.de w³: http://www.k-fish.de/ gpg: http://www.k-fish.de/mykeys.gpg