That is the code, except for the exceedingly long SQL statement - which was built for me by a tool and works fine. The suggestion about using single quotes actually did fix the issue - was that just a side effect?

When people post "this breaks" but don't post the code that actually breaks, all we can do is guess. On Usenet, it's a common practice to simply make up a nonsense answer like "the problem is on line 48, or near there". {grin}

But yes, changing the stuff you posted from double to single quote wouldn't have changed a thing, so whatever your secret SQL is, that's where the problem was. Please keep that in mind next time. Most of the people answering questions here are not asking for things idly. {grin}

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

here's the SQL, by popular demand:

SELECT SC_BASE_APPT.CALL_ID, SC_BASE_APPT.STATUS 
FROM SC_BASE_APPT , SC_BASE_INFO 
WHERE ( (SC_BASE_INFO.TRANS_ID = SC_BASE_APPT.TRANS_ID) )
AND SC_BASE_APPT.SC_ID = ? AND
((to_number(SC_BASE_INFO.AP_START) <= ? AND to_number(SC_BASE_INFO.AP_
+END) >= ?)
OR
(to_number(SC_BASE_INFO.AP_START) <= ? AND to_number(SC_BASE_INFO.AP_E
+ND) >= ?))
[download]