title: sql server merge two tables with different structures
body: <p>I have a situation where in I have to combine two tables without losing any data. The two tables have different structures. Following is the structures of my tables</p>
  
  <pre><code>TABLE A 
  ID_NO INT,
  Ship_Date DATE,
  Status varchar(10),
  total decimal(12,2)
  
  TABLE B
  ID_NO INT,
  Status varchar(10),
  total decimal(12,2)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I tried using UNION ALL by including a dummy column in TABLE B as follows</p>
  
  <pre><code>TABLE B
  ID_NO INT,
  '',
  Status varchar(10),
  total decimal(12,2)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>but in the result set i get 1900-01-01 as Ship_Date instead of ''. How to eliminate this?</p>