Thanks Sue but I may be confusing my original question. I was struggling with my original question (which I was developing in SSMS and saving it as a view to link with SSRS). Although I was explicitly setting the scheme.pallet.PAL_date in SSMS I want to be able to use a parameter so the date can be queried (in SSRS). So creating a parameter isn't a problem but I think Im correct in saying you cant use the declare, set and then referencing the declared as @theDate for example given SSRS creates a parameter based on the @xxx if you see what I mean?
If you want it so the date can be queried in SSRS I would guess you mean that the user can enter a date in the report?
If that's what you are trying to do then yes you create a parameter for the report. You don't declare it like you do in SSMS. In the query for the dataset, you create the parameter there without using declare. When the user runs the report they enter a date and the date is passed to the query as a report parameter.
Sue