>>>FYI -
>>>SET DELETED ON was my problem...arrrggh!
>>>
>>
>>Did you try my SQL and Sergey's? Do they return the same result? I think mine is essentially the same as Rich's.
>
>Yes, I tried both.
>Sergey's worked, but it returned all the item_state ones, not just the two that I was looking for.
>Your's had some strange syntax error I couldn't get passed, and I didn't really understand the part of the statement where the 'step1' was. However you DID point out the >=2 intead of = 2 in Rich's - so hey - everyone helped..haha... gotta love the VFP community!

I got the same syntax error. Could it be related to VFP 8 and your code is for VFP 9?

I couldn't test it, but I think there's a flaw in your logic. Try testing it with 3 records in the items table for one order_no. All three should have state = 'CM'. I think you will generate a false positive because the count will be three, but both states won't be there.