[thelist] comparing form data to database data

[McCreath_David]

ASP 3.0 / IIS 5 / SQLServer 7

Looking for some refinement hints. I'm comparing a date range from a form to
an existing date range in a table. It works like this:

The user fills out one form and provides a beginning date and an end date
for a school/student activity (it could be a multiple month activity, so the
date range could be rather large). This data is inserted into a table and
the activity is given an auto ID. (Each date goes into a separate column.)

The next form in the chain is a request for substitutes for a time within
that date range. That form has a pull-down list of all the activities
related to this school, built from the table mentioned above. In this form,
they enter a date range as well, and what I need to verify is that this date
range falls within the date range from the previous form.

I did it this way:

In the sub that does the insert for the second form, I pull a recordset of
just the two dates from the activity table and set them as variables then do
a simple client-side comparison in the regular form validation. It works,
but it seems kinda wonky to make two calls to the database in one sub.

Is there a way to do it in the stored procedure? I couldn't find any
examples of exactly what I was trying to do, and it seems like I ought to be
able to do it with SQL in the stored procedure, but I'm stopped in two
places. 1) I'm not quite sure what the actual syntax of the statement should
be and 2) I'm not sure how to report the error to the user.

Clear as mud?

Dave
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