Dragan,

I didn't know you could do it that way, thanks. However, as to it's shortness, it still appears to have a character length of 4. <g>

>>Not in SQL Server, NULL is as close as you can get with either datetime or smalldatetime. SQL Server doesn't have anything like VFP's {/:} (empty datetime).
>
>Try

{ :}

. That's even shorter :).