Terry,

>I figured that. I tried the manipulation in the function but it didn't work. What I settled on was 100 + caredays() - 100 AS CareDays. That gave me a 5 0.
>Also, manipulation in the caredays function hides the purpose of the work. Putting the manipulation in the SQL code makes it easy to see and explain the whys to other programmers.

You can also do just return a plain numeric from the function and do this in the SELECT:

SELECT whatever, 00+caredays()

That gives me 3-digit numeric with 1 or 2-digit return from function.