Hi Tom,

Here's something I observed and couldn't make anything out of it.

Considering the below two queries: (To summarize, I took a string of 9 repeating characters, and replacing the nth character (3rd in the example) with another character. Ideally replacing a character with another shouldn't alter the length of the original string)

SELECT LENGTH(REGEXP_REPLACE('*********', '*', 'X', 3, 1))  FROM DUAL;

The above query somehow "increases" the length of the original string from 9 to 10, while the below query (essentially the same, just using '-' instead of '*')

SELECT LENGTH(REGEXP_REPLACE('---------', '-', 'X', 3, 1))  FROM DUAL;

"maintains" the length of the original string.

I've tested with multiple other characters, but this discrepancy is happening only with '*'.

Can you help me understand this?

SQL> SELECT LENGTH(REGEXP_REPLACE('*********', '*', 'X', 3, 1))  FROM DUAL;

SQL> SELECT LENGTH(REGEXP_REPLACE('*********', '\*', 'X', 3, 1))  FROM DUAL;
                                               9