For me _TALLY always equals 0 whenever there is no matching records, so it must be caused by one of your settings. However, if you really don't care about the result, and only need to find the number of hits, if any at all, you can use another solution:

SELECT MAX(draw.drawlstchg) FROM draw ;
  WHERE draw.obligor + draw.obligation + draw.unit = ;
  m.obligor + m.obligation + m.unit ;
  TO SCREEN NOCONSOLE
IF _TALLY....

>The problem is the following code. In VFP6 it returns _tally = 0, in VFP9 it returns _tally = 1 with .NULL. in dchg[1]. What can I do about the _tally? There was not a match found in the DRAW but _TALLY returns a 1 and puts .NULL. in the array. Why does this happen and what can I do about it?
>
>< _tally > 0
> m.dlstchg = dchg[1]
>ELSE
> pre>
>SELECT MAX(draw.drawlstchg) FROM draw ;
> WHERE draw.obligor + draw.obligation + draw.unit = ;
> m.obligor + m.obligation + m.unit ;
> INTO ARRAY dchg
>IFm.dlstchg = { / / }
>ENDIF
>