I want to put a blank value into a datetime field in sql server 2005. However
I am getting the date of '1/2/1900'.

In the following statement, I want to return a blank date in a column in sql
server 2005 stored procedure that is passed to a vb.net 2005 application.
Instead I am getting 1/2/1900 returned in that column.

The following is part of the stored procedure that is called by the vb.net
application.

create table testtable (tablekey as int,testdate as datetime)

insert into testtable values (1,getdate())

insert into testtable values(2,'')


The source for the first insert statement will contain a valid date.
The source for the second insert statement will not contain any date.
that is why I want the value in the second inswert statement to be blank.

Thus can you tell me how to pass a blank date value?

A datetime column can be NULL, but if is not NULL, then it must contain both
a date and a time. If you input only a date, the time defaults to
00:00:00.000, and if you only input a time, the date defaults to Jan 1,
1900. If you don't input either, by inputing a space, it defaults to Jan 1,
1900 at 00:00:00.000. You could do,

create table testtable (tablekey as int,testdate as datetime)

insert into testtable values (1,getdate())

insert into testtable values(2,NULL)

Then, of course, your application would have to correctly handle NULL's in
that column.

Tom

"douglas" <douglas (AT) discussions (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote