i wrote a function a while back for this same problem

CREATE  FUNCTION dbo.Quote()

RETURNS CHAR(1)

AS
 
BEGIN
 RETURN ''''
END

beauty of the function is it's always available (without the DECLARE and SET statements), and it can be used in views (inline)

ejf

One of those - "Doh, Why didn't I think of that?"  Simple and smart - well done.

Yes quotename is a nice way of doing things, but bear in mind it has a limit of

nvarchar(258)

so you probably are better off using a UDF so you don't get caught out working with a really really big string   

Nice method using the variable though, although perhaps a little @q is less intrusive?  Using a substitute char also makes good sense, like a ~ character or something not often used...

Mr.Allen, you provided a very good another logic to get away from confusing code.  I understood how to use table data type practically and thanks for the author and Mr.Allen too for a nice example of using qutoname function.