>It still not worth wasting the time on why. Just find a workaround. Something like

Sorry, maybe I hadn't worded it correctly but yes I had a quick work around for it but just wanted to put it here in case I missed something

SELECT <otherfields>, tstjv.jvdate AS billdate, <morefields>, {} AS stockdate, .....

and I already had a SELECT that did some more manipulations so I changed it a wee bit

SELECT <otherfields>, asdfg.billdate, <morefields>, IIF(EMPTY(asdfg.stockdate), asdfg.billdate, asdfg.stockdate)) AS stockdate, .....

Thanks.