Thanks for your response, Peter.

I can build the db in SQL but I have a bunch of data that is
currently in Excel that I need to move. I can do that through vfp
but I am not aware of how to import that directly from Excel to SQL.
I will keep looking but VFP does represent a path.

I discovered an answer to my own question last night. I changed the
compatability property of the db from the default of 80 to 65. There
was obviously some character combinations within the Excel data that
did not conform to the stricter requirements of SQL2000

Many thanks
-gn-