*** SQL Server?
SELECT Id, COALESCE(Top   , Pr.Top   ,0) AS Top,
           COALESCE(Left  , Pr.Left  ,0) AS Left,
           COALESCE(Width , Pr.Width ,0) AS Width,
           COALESCE(Height, Pr.Height,0) AS Width,
           COALESCE(Color , Pr.Color ,0) AS Color
FROM MyTable
LEFT JOIN MyTable Pr ON MyTable.Parent = Pr.Id

>Hi,
>
>I posted the following in the .NET forum but it's essentially a SQL query problem so I thought I'd try here as well:
>--------------->
>Assume a table where each row contains the specification for a rectangle but which also may 'inherit' from a parent row. E.g.:
>

>ID     ParentID   Top    Left   Width    Height    Color
>1      0          10     10     100      100       White
>2      1          null   null   200      null      null
>3      2          null   null   null     null      Red
>4      1          20     20     null     null      Green
>* where non-null values override the parent value. This means ID 3 would be:
>                  10     10     200      100       Red
>* ID 4 would be:
>                  20     20     100      100       Green
>* etc
>

>I had this coded in VFP using recursion to 'walk' back up the tree to the root record and then build the final spec by unwinding back down. Any suggestion on how to implement this using ADO/SQLServer (with as much as possible in SQL since this data may also be accessed by other front ends)?
>
>Bear in mind that the example above is a (gross) over-simplification of the actual table structure and that the nesting levels will often be deeper...
>
>TIA,
>Viv