Hi Thanks for the reply. Yes at the moment we use controls with SQL select query for the required date values. However, we need to validate the parameters before the report is submitted. A simple example a user may put in a start date greater than the end date. Although the example is just dealing with two dates the live application there is a requirement for more sophisticated validation, hence the use of a scriptlet. Also some of these parameters are rather heavy on resources therefore we want to hold them as static variables as they will be common across a number of reports. Again Thanks Peter