>>>>I may have been barking up the wrong tree. I converted the VFP memvar to type DateTime and still get the same error. (Which, again, does not occur in the VFP 6 version of the app running against the same SQL Server database). Here is the relevant info. Ndxfl1 is a remote view against a table by that name in the database. The remote view is populated correctly. The DateTime field is d_ate.
>>>>
>>>>The command:
>>>>
>>>>

select d_ate=max(d_ate)
>>>>            from ndxfl1
>>>>            where ir_table=?nirfile
>>>>              and ir_type=?nir_type
>>>>              and d_ate<=?m.mdbegdb2
>>>>

>>>
>>>>Connectivity error: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Line 4: Incorrect syntax near 'd_ate'.
>>>
>>>I'm not trying to break Nadya's record... was looking for something else and just noticed this. I think the error came from m-dot in the last line. SQL server never heard of m-dot.
>>
>>It may not be a record but not bad, replying to a message from 2005. I read your reply and had no memory at all of posting that question.
>>
>>Doesn't the value of the parameter get substituted before the query gets passed to SQL Server?
>
>Right. Well, no way to check now. Let this stay one of the great unsolved mysteries of our times (and times square, times cube, times tesseract etc etc).

IIRC it did get resolved, but darned if I can remember what the problem was.