Thanks Peter, I do appreciate the insight in the differences you provided on the use of stored procedures in Oracle vs SQLSever, however the real point of what I was after was...

Somebody call PETA, this poor kitty's has been skinned plenty!   

Why not something as simple as:

---------------------------------------------------

DECLARE @col_mm_no smallint,

  @col_yr_no smallint,

  @dtDate  datetime

SET @col_mm_no = 5

SET @col_yr_no = 2005

SET @dtDate = CAST(@col_mm_no AS CHAR) + '/1/' + CAST(@col_yr_no AS CHAR)

SELECT @dtDate

---------------------------------------------------

RETURNS:

2005-05-01 00:00:00.000

Which is in datetime format.  Let the machine do...

Are you saying that all clients that access the ASP page from server 2 are exhibiting the same prompting before open behavior or that the prompt is occurring when you...

Thanks Gents for your responses.  Ill take some time to see how the DateDiff approach might be used in my situation now that I think I know what's going on...

I Haven't seen the DateDiff usage for grouping before, have typically used an approach like 'SELECT SUM(Amount) FROM Forecast WHERE DatePart(yy, acctperiod) BETWEEN @StartYear AND @EndYear' with the acctperiod column being a datetime. ...

I like the numeric handling you proposed versus the char padding - didn't think of that trick.  I can see that the BETWEEN operator will be used heavily as it...

Thanks all for your replies.

I ran some statistics, albeit with limited data, on my own using execution plans to see what might the difference be between defining an accounting period...

Didn't finish my post before it magically fired off but you get the drift...anyway thanks for the reply.

I thought of the integer (February 2006 = 200602) approach but I was...

Didn't know I was presenting an argument...just stating that I've used a MUCK model under very strict circumstances for a very long time with no problems (honest). I agree the...

...Change as in deletions from the list of values.  If I feel this can be a possibility it is not a candidate for MUCK table. In more cases I will allow a...

(Hope this isn't a duplicate post as my first post seems to have bee sucked into a black hole...)

No argument that the use of separate tables is the quote 'best'...

With all due respect to Mr. Celko, whose background I am familiar with and grasp of SQL internals is probably beyond compare, I felt your response was a little condescending and...

This is directed to Vince... I know this is a bit of time after this general thread was going on, but have been looking for a way to programmatically change...