Hi Debbie,
I'm not sure how that SQL query worked in SQL as, ideally, you shouldn't be able to Join on fields with different datatypes.
If you wish to handle this in CR, you have two choices:
1) Create a SQL Query that includes a datatype conversion function to convert the string field to number or the other way around and use that in the Join syntax or
2) Use a Subreport. The Main report will connect to one table and using a formula (that converts to another datatype), link the other table - this is a very expensive technique though.
-Abhilash
