I'm not sure why doing it on the front-end would be 'better'. By doing it in SQL it remains accessible and usable from ANY front-end, report writing, views etc.... it is an extremely simple statement and doesn't require any database access - so the only performance overhead would be in the comms between front-end and DB - but once written it can be used anywhere. We apply this same logic to most business rules and functionality. As a result of this approach we were able to convert an 12 large client server style systems to ASP based web pages in 8 weeks with just one programming resource.... not trying to sing our praises, rather just trying to re-emphasis this forums name 'SQL ServerCentral' wherein the database is 'Central' to our development and programming efforts.