SQL Question

[Steve Haas]

Good morning,   Env't:  Oracle 8.1.5, HP-UX 11.0 (64 bit)   Given the following tables: emp with 100 rows dept with 10 rows   and this SQL: select emp.ename, initcap(dept.deptname) from emp.dept where emp.deptno = emp.deptno;   The questions - How many times is the initcap(dept.deptname) function actually "executed"? Is it once for each emp row (100 times) or once for each dept row (10 times) or some other value?   Another scenario - Would it be faster to retrieve rows with a bunch of similar functions (initcap, concatenations of columns and/or literals, etc) or to have and maintain the data in columns with the data formatted as such?   TIA gurus...   Steve Haas Opus Consultants, LLC