I think that they used -1 as this is the value for True in MS Access and in Visual Basic. Indeed, it seems that SQL Server 2000 behaves differently (more correct, if I may say) than SQL Server 7. But you can use sp_dbcmptlevel to simulate the SQL Server 7 behaviour:

if exists (select * from sysobjects where name='bits_test' and type='U')

drop table bits_test

create table bits_test (

&nbsp

insert into bits_test (x) values (1)

insert into bits_test (x) values (null)

select * from bits_test

declare @dbname sysname

set @dbname=db_name()

exec sp_dbcmptlevel @dbname, 70

select * from bits_test where x=-1

exec sp_dbcmptlevel @dbname, 80

select * from bits_test where x=-1

Setting the database compatibility level to anything below 80 will prevent you from using SQL Server 2000-specific features (for example: UDF-s, declarative cascading referential integrity, instead-of triggers, indexed computed columns, etc). If you need to use these features, you will have to change all the affected queries. I recommend that you use "<>0" instead of "=-1".

Razvan Socol