How the bug unfolded:
I retrieved the $monthnum from a sybase query. $monthnum is a sybase tiny integer.
I then wanted to concatenate it to create a date and display it (see below).
$monthdate = $monthnum."/".$monthday."/".$monthyear;
echo $monthdate;
Php kept throwing in a line break <br> and chopping off everything after $monthnum
I changed the tinyint to an integer (in sybase) and that fixed it.
In summary: php does not like sybase tinyint
I hope this helps.