>Ok found the BOL on SQL user-Defined Functions. They do not give an example of how to define an input parameter as a character. Does anyone know what the syntax is, I tried char(10) and varchar(10).

You define the type of local variables or parameter the same way as a type of a table column. Both char(10) and varchar(10) define a character data type but char(10) will pad any value passed to 10 character.