drop table foo; create table foo( --tabel foo bar text, --fld name boo text --again ); --populate insert into foo (bar,boo) values('''a', 'b'); -- insert quote's sake insert into foo (bar,boo) values('c', 'd'); -- another line select 'test' || 'abc' as a ; -- maybe you use dual with oracle? select 'test''s' || 'abc' as a ; -- maybe you use dual with oracle? select '--foo';