Yes I'm on SP1

it is a really odd one ... sql 2000 is giving different results to sql 2005 which is why I initially thought it was a bug or...

hang on a sec...

 if your still there dc could you try exactly the same thing but with nvarchar data types instead of varchar. I do tend to rebuild machines quite...

ha ha...my machine must be having a fit. Just as our next product release is due ... that would be about right.

Thanks for your help

Dashes are intermittantly referred to as wildcards by just about everyone but you're correct they're not...I think you would probably refer to them as match comparison operators or something similar.

They're...