LONG datatype

I am spooling the results of a SQL*Plus query to a text file that is subsequently imported into a FileMaker Pro database. One of the columns is a LONG datatype. I am able to use the REPPLACE function on all columns except the LONG. This function is necessary in order to supress unwanted commas that may occur in the text returned by the query. Is there any easy way to convert the first thousand or two characters of a LONG to a Varchar2, then apply the REPLACE function? Thanks for any help as I'm new to SQL programming. -Ian

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