>>>>>The source cursor was created via

>>>>>select dist fundtype, ;
>>>>>	cast(000000000000.00 as N(15,2) NULL) as priorpmt,;
>>>>>	cast(0000000000 as I NULL) as thisyear, ;
>>>>>	cast(0000000000.00 as N(13,2) NULL)as spent, ;
>>>>>	cast(0000000000.00 as N(13,2) NULL) as currentbalance, ;
>>>>>	cast(0000000000 as I NULL) as futureprogram, ;
>>>>>	cast(0000000000.00 as N(13,2) NULL) as total ;
>>>>>	from tipdatabase!fundtypes ;
>>>>>	order by fundtype ;
>>>>>	into cursor crsTemp readwrite

so the datatype for thisyear is integer although there are also number fields I will have to deal with in similar fashion. I think my second sample was taken directly from the site shown in your link.
>>>>
>>>>If the ThisYear is Integer, why do you want to display it in the money format? May be you wanted another field, say, Spent ?
>>>
>>>The entire table is money. Budgets are kept in whole dollars hence integer for efficiency. Expenses however carry the pennies hence a decimal value.
>>
>>Anyway, cast everything to N(13,2) or to Currency. Does the formatting code above work for Numeric fields?
>No it does not.

Interesting, this

Dim myval As Decimal = oReader("priorpmt")
Response.Write(myval.ToString("$ #0,0.00"))

will work, but

Response.Write(oReader("priorpmt").ToString("$ #0,0.00"))

will not. So it looks like the reader is presenting a string and not a number.