can't do that, because the comparison still takes place and give the same error. (went ahead and attempted anyways!) However I did fix it by doing a union.select dateadd(month, datediff(month, 0, b.currentdate),0), a.USW_Number, count(*) from tblAnalyst ainner join tblAttendence b on a.usw_number = b.usw_numwhere b.currentDate between '12/1/08' and '1/7/2010'and a.contracthiredate != ' / /'and b.currentdate < a.hiredateand a.hiredate != ' / /'group by dateadd(month, datediff(month, 0, b.currentdate),0),a.usw_numberUnionselect dateadd(month, datediff(month, 0, b.currentdate),0), a.USW_Number, count(*) from tblAnalyst ainner join tblAttendence b on a.usw_number = b.usw_numwhere b.currentDate between '12/1/08' and '1/7/2010'and a.contracthiredate != ' / /'and a.hiredate = ' / /'group by dateadd(month, datediff(month, 0, b.currentdate),0),a.usw_numberorder by 1, 2