hi
what is the command to list only the hidden files

Hidden files are those with a starting dot... you can simply do
where the option d is to list directories without listing their content.

thanks

[bala@localhost ~]$ ls
bpgV1_vsipl_plot
Desktop
workspace
workspace1
workspace_kdchart
workspace_qtdemo

and


bala@localhost ~]$ ls -ad .*
. .emacs .ICEauthority .qt
.. .emacs.d .kde .recently-used
.assistant .esd_auth .local .rhn-applet.conf
.bash_history .fonts.cache-1 .mailcap .rhopenoffice1.1
.bash_logout .gconf .mcop .sversionrc
.bash_profile .gconfd .mcoprc .thumbnails
.bashrc .gnome .metacity .Trash
.canna .gnome2 .mime.types .viminfo
.config .gnome2_private .mozilla .Xauthority
.designer .gstreamer-0.8 .nautilus .xemacs
.dmrc .gtkrc .openoffice-install-log .zshrc
.eggcups .gtkrc-1.2-gnome2 .openoffice-lock


i didn't get the directories listed

Yes you did: .emacs.d, .mozilla, .kde are all directories.

you mean hidden directories

Dude, thats <ls -al .*>. You can view in detail!