Check compatibility level using sp_dbcmptlevel. If it's last than 70 than empty string literal ('') is interpreted as a single blank. It also could affect some other commnads and behaviors.

>SQL Server 2000. That's odd, is there some other setting that could be giving me results different from you?
>
>>Yes, I tested it under SQL 2000 and it returns result w/o spaces. What version are you running?
>>
>>>Sergey, did you test this? Here are my results:
>>>
>>>select convert(varchar,getdate(),114)
>>>retuns: 08:01:30:890
>>>
>>>select replace(convert(varchar,getdate(),114),':','')
>>>returns: 08 01 30 890
>>>
>>>Notice the spaces that are being returned.
>>>
>>>>You can use T_SQL REPLACE() function to remove colons.

SELECT REPLACE(CONVERT(varchar(32), getdate(),114), ':', '')