hey hey - thanks a lot guys.. I'm looking @ that sp now...

as for the delay.. well... I thought that 1 minute was being overly generous,...

don't know if this will help, but create a global temp table by using ## instead of #??

don't forget to drop the table when finished

thanx a lot steve - already done part of this but let me just say that the site and the forums ROCK!!! I've just started a new position as...

solved it! - there was a NULL record before that date which knocked out the IN!