looking at ActiveRecord::ConnectionAdapters::Quoting -> def quote(value, column = nil) e.g. in the abstract adapter def quoted_true "''t''" end will be overwritten in the mysql_adapter with def quoted_true QUOTED_TRUE end I thought the adapters should overwrite these quoting methods, so that the different data types will be converted in a format, the database will understand. One possible timestamp format for a Microsoft SQL server database is the odbc format: { ts ''2010-07-20 23:59:59'' } but the abstract adapter will tack some additional quotes to this format if value.acts_like?(:date) || value.acts_like?(:time) "''#{quoted_date(value)}''" and the this format will fail and the database reports an error. Two possible solutions: 1. the abstract adapter will not tack any additional chars to the format, but forward all quotings ( quote_string, quote_true, quote_date, ... ) to the physical adapter ( with some defaults in the abstract adapter ) 2. every adapter overwrites def quote(value, column = nil) but this may lead to different quoting behaviours in the adapters. Comments ? Best regards Klaus -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Core" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-core@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rubyonrails-core+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-core?hl=en.