BTW, there's a difference between "tortuous" and "torturous". ;-)

You're right, my mistake, I misread your sentence.

But either way, I disagree, and I'm not sure you understand the solution. The API for such a stored proc doesn't need to distinguish between explicit/implicit NULLs - the logic is inside the proc, and can be encapsulated in a stored proc generator for standard INSERT/UPDATE statements from an application data dictionary (which are going to be improved in SQL '08, to make the process even easier), a task that many shops use. This is a mundane and almost non-issue for shops that have much bigger issues.

What I posted is actually a small improvement over an existing solution that you'll find on many SQL blogs and sites. I hardly think it has many twists and turns.

I'm trying not to make this personal, but this needs to be said: both you and Walter are arguing from some weak premises.