strange problem -- string not being set properly

[esthera]

i have the following coe

sql= "select * from items where [expirydate]<CONVERT(datetime, '" & mydate & "', 101)"

response.write sql


when i right out the sql it's ignoring everything after [expirydate]
it's very strange - it's not writing it out or passing it to my query.

any ideas what could be happening?

[mehere]

put a space before and after the less than sign
sql= "select * from items where [expirydate] < CONVERT(datetime, '" & mydate & "', 101)"