Help, SQL Problem!!!

Hi

I hope this doesn't seem like a silly question but I'm new to all this. Is there any way to dynamically alter the FROM part of a select statement either in SQL or PL/SQL.

My requirement is this: I have to gather data from 52 tables all of which have an identical structure. They are only differentiated by their names. The first is called sales_00001, the next sales_00002 and so on. All the data has to be spooled into a single text file in one go. Apart from coding a query that has 52 selects all unioned together with hardcoded table names for each of the tables, is there any way of having a single select statement, say within some kind of loop that has its from part dynamically altered for each iteration of the loop. If so, how do I achieve this? I can't find out how it is done anywhere.

Thanks in advance

Val Received on Mon Aug 10 1998 - 19:30:44 CDT