RE: Interesting question and debate on ddl tables with date fields thatwill not always have a value

Use nulls, that's what they're for!

Not to make this an state-of-the-nation discussion, but it's the very
fact that many people aren't willing to use the "current" stuff, that
makes an i look old. Imagine this question from an outsiders point of
view... the rest of the world uses null, to a SQL Server programmer this
wouldn't even be a question. Looking at an i, we'd see that we "can't"
use nulls, so i must be old! Granted, it's not that the i can't handle
them technically, but that our programmers can't handle them. Well,
sooner or later the programmers have to upgrade their skills, or guess
what, the machine IS old.

-Walden