I'm not sure about question one, but how much hassle is it to type those four little characters 'DESC' :-)

On the second question, you could use BETWEEN so it would be something like

select a.*
(select st.student_id, to_char(st.register_date, 'dd-mm-yyyy hh24:mi') reg_date, rownum news_row
from student, sb.subject
where st.sudent_id = sb.student_id
and sb.subject_name like '%math%'
and st.register_date between to_date('01-10-2000, 'dd-mm-yyyy') and st.register_date <= to_date('01-11-2000, 'dd-mm-yyyy') + 1
/* error? without + 1 it will not be inclusive */
order by reg_date desc ) a,
student st
where st.student_id = a.student_id
and rownum >= 1
and rownum <= 20


[Edited by m1l on 11-29-2000 at 09:22 AM]