HERE IS how I did with sql procedure. I guess the logic is the same for VB as well. CHECK IT OUT. --******** -- table to hold number and word for 0-9 Create table dbo.bsNtoT (Num int, Word varchar(20) ) --insert script for lookup table insert into dbo.bsNtoT values (0,'zero') insert into dbo.bsNtoT values (1,'one') insert into dbo.bsNtoT values (2,'two') insert into dbo.bsNtoT values (3,'three') insert into dbo.bsNtoT values (4,'four') insert into dbo.bsNtoT values (5,'five') insert into dbo.bsNtoT values (6,'six') insert into dbo.bsNtoT values (7,'seven') insert into dbo.bsNtoT values (8,'eight') insert into dbo.bsNtoT values (9,'nine') --Create procedure do the job ALTER procedure bsReverse ( @input varchar(20) ) as begin Declare @i int, @Count int, @iLen int Declare @NewText varchar(10), @Text varchar(10), @FinalText varchar(100), @check char(1) set @i=1 SET @FinalText='' SELECT @Count=len(@input) SELECT @iLen=@Count WHILE @i<=@Count begin SELECT @NewText=substring(@input,@iLen,1) SELECT @check= isnumeric(@NewText) if @check='1' SELECT @NewText=Word FROM dbo.bsNtoT WHERE Num=@NewText SELECT @FinalText=@FinalText+@NewText SET @i=@i+1 SET @iLen=@iLen-1 end SELECT @FinalText end --try running it exec bsReverse 'ab45c' --********