In one case, I had a query involving 9 tables (one less than the maximum permitted in VFP 6, as I learned later), that took 50 seconds over the network. After separating it into queries that added only one table at a time, the time dropped to 2 seconds.

Since then, I changed most of the existing queries, and always split new queries into pieces.

This also aids in clarity.

However, results are known to vary in Visual FoxPro, so in the case of a very slow query, you may still want to experiment with different alternatives.

>Hi,
>
>Is there a speed advantage to using separate SELECT commands as opposed to humping them up into a single command using sub queries?
>
>Here's an example of what I'm refering to:
>

>SELECT Field1,CNT(*) as nTotal FROM ATable INTO CURSOR crsCursor1 GROUP BY Field1
>
>SELECT nTotal FROM crsCursor1 INTO CURSOR crsCursor2
>

>
>as opposed to
>
>

>SELECT nTotal FROM (SELECT Field1,CNT(*) as nTotal FROM ATable GROUP BY Field1) INTO CURSOR crsCursor2
>

>
>The first example is more of a pain to clean up after but is easier to debug. I'm just wondering if there is a runtime speed advantage to any of them.
>
>Aloha,
>
>James