"box" appearing instead of <NULL>

We are seeing occasions where a column value that should be NULL, is
displaying a little "box". This "box" actually prints when the column is
sent to a report. When selecting data, if the "box" is present, it is not
included when looking for NULLs in the column. If the select statement says
NOT NULL, the "box" is selected.
Does anyone know what is causing this?
We are running SQL Server 2000 version 8.00.761
Thanks.This is a non-printing character of some sort, probably passed in when
translating an input string through a different program or library.
Assuming it's the first character, take the row in question, and do this:
SELECT [1st char] = ASCII(SUBSTRING(<column_name>, 1, 1))
FROM
<table_name>
WHERE <clause to identify that bad row>;
Now you will get an answer like 4 or 3 or 0... so now you can take that
<answer> and say
SELECT <column_name> = REPLACE(<column_name>, CHAR(<answer> ), '')
FROM <table_name>;
"Doug" <Doug@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7B29C100-1844-471D-B093-30A1130AB8CE@.microsoft.com...
> We are seeing occasions where a column value that should be NULL, is
> displaying a little "box". This "box" actually prints when the column is
> sent to a report. When selecting data, if the "box" is present, it is not
> included when looking for NULLs in the column. If the select statement
> says
> NOT NULL, the "box" is selected.
> Does anyone know what is causing this?
> We are running SQL Server 2000 version 8.00.761
> Thanks.