> What I cannot understand is that if I run the same VFP code on the SAME upi number, it pops up instantly. Even if I close VFP and then reopen in a new session, it appears in a split second. If I try searching for a upi that I have never searched for before, it takes a long time again.
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>Why does this happen and how can I make the first search on a upi as fast as the subsequent searches on the same upi? The MySQL table has an index on upi....

The reason that the second and subsequent searches take little time compared to the first search is that VFP caches the data. If you make an additional search using the same criteria then your request resides in memory and is therefore accessed very quickly. Change your search request to avoid this result.