Take a look at this thread for some ideas:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/forums/shwmessage.aspx?forumid=23&messageid=111988

..."But even that's not that big a deal. I'm just against putting out data that isn't real, but others will provide their POV on that one..."

I agree, I use null...

I think this it is a secret.  I couldn't find it in BOL or the knowledge base.  I'm sure its there somewhere but I couldn't find it.

Just found the answer in another thread this format will work:

2005-03-31 (no quotes)

Declare @rowcount int,

        @error int

UPDATE dbo.MySurvey_Positions SET Company_Name = @CompanyName, Position_Title = @PositionTitle, Start_Date = @StartDate, Salary = @Salary

Where User_ID = @user-id AND Position_ID...

There is no need to check to see if the row exists before you do the update.

Think about it.  The first thing the Update must do is check to see...

IF EXISTS (SELECT User_ID FROM dbo.User_Information WHERE User_ID = @user-id)

 BEGIN

  UPDATE dbo.User_Information

   SET Salutation = @Salutation, Email_1 = @Email1, Address_1 = @Address1

    , Address_2 = @Address2, City = @City, State_Province...

IF EXISTS(SELECT User_ID FROM dbo.User_Information WHERE User_ID = @user-id)

Begin

UPDATE dbo.User_Information SET Salutation = @Salutation, Email_1 = @Email1, Address_1 = @Address1, Address_2 = @Address2, City = @City,...

I know the method I use can't be easily applied to most systems already developed but this is what I do.

Since the default return value from a sproc is 0,...

This doesn't have anything to do with fixing the problem you described but I would like to suggest some modifications to the code.

Declare @rowcount int,

           @error int

SELECT @last_download_time =...

Please post the code you use to execute the stored procedure.

This statement will never return 1 because of the NULL in the comparison. 

Select 1

Where 'x' Not IN ('a', null, 'b')

This will always print 'what happened'

if 'x'...

I don't think you need to convert it since this would work just fine.

Select *

From YourTable

Where YourDateColumn = 'May 4 2005 12:00AM'

Select distinct a.Custid

From Txusage a

Join   Txusage b

  On b.Custid = a.Custid

Where a.venueid = 5

And     a.usagetime between '2005-06-14 11:59' and '2005-06-14 17:00'

And    b.venueid = 12

And    b.usagetime between '2005-06-14 11:59' and...

At this point I'll have to quote from Remi's post.

"It's quite easy to do, but I'm not sure of what you want to do.

Can you post the table...