lc_custno = [123] lt_date = CTOT([07/01/2004]) &&watch strictdate for this sample or use {^2004-07-01 ::} TEXT to lc_SQL TEXTMERGE NOSHOW PRETEXT 3 && you may not have pretext option SELECT * FROM MyOracle.Sales Sales WHERE Sales.customer = ?lc_custno AND Sales.OrderDate = ?lt_date ORDER BY Sales.OrderDate ENDTEXT *!* get rid of line returns [not needed in VFP9 BTW] lc_SQL = STRTRAN(lc_SQL, CHR(13) + CHR(10), [ ]) nresult = SQLEXEC(myhandle, lc_SQL, 'myresults')All the format casting etc seems to be taken care of when we do this against Oracle or any other backend for that matter.