Thats exactly what I did Ramesh - works a treat now

Ok I can see the flaw - its the replace function that causes the problem

set @searchterms= replace(@searchterms, SUBSTRING(@Searchterms,1,@Spaceat),'')

when it removes '1 ' it affects '11 ' in the searchterms etc...

Thanks guys - I have prepared a stripped down version of the original sql that uses the pubs database to test with - it works when the @SearchTerms is as...

Assuming you backup regularly

to reinstate the old dates :

Do a RESTORE of database1 with its latest backup to a new database2

then update database1 setting database1.datecolumn = database2.datecolumn where database1.IDcolumn...

Thanks David, you steered me in the right direction - got it working correctly using 'LEFT JOIN'