Am I missing something?

Yes!!

ds != null is not the same as ds =! null (and, in fact, the latter will produce a compiler error). Maybe you need glasses? <vbg>

~~Bonnie


>>> Also 'ds = !null' is not valid syntax
>
>Why not? Getting back to my method that creates a data set. After the data set is created I need to rename the table inside this data set. So what I do is the following
>
>

>DataSet myDataSet = MyClass.FillDataSet( SqlCommand, out ErrorMessage);
>
>if (myDataSet != null )
>{
>    myDataSet.Tables[0].TableName = "myTableName";
>}
>else
>{
>     // add to the error message explanation
>    ErrorMessage = "Problem occurred. "  + ErrorMessage;
>}
>
>

>
>So far the above syntax has worked. Am I missing something? Thank you.