Well, when I expect only one match, I test only for EOF, not BOF.

i.e.

Set rs = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.recordset")
rs.Open strSQL, objSpecs, adOpenStatic, adLockReadOnly, 1

if rs.EOF...

GridView supports EmptyDataRowStyle

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.gridview.emptydatarowstyle.aspx

Where do you want it cut down? For display, many things such as texboxes have a way to number format data.

Then there's the Format function....