VFP 9, SP1

>You will only need alias if the same field name is presented in both tables. What VFP version are you using?
>
>>This is a bit long, but bear with me.
>>
>>I have done this sort of thing a few times, but in this case it's a bit different. Here's
>>the scenerio.
>>
>>I allow the user to create custom list sorts. This is accomplished by allowing the
>>user to to pick fields in any order they want. They get a list of plain text field names ,
>>which I conver to actual field names.
>>
>>Each field they select is stored in a table called 'ListSortDetails', which has a sequence
>>column to specify the order.
>>
>>So they could pick 'Customer Name', 'Order Date' and 'Total Amount' from the list of
>>available columns. I then write out one record each for 'CustName, OrdDate and TotAmount'.
>>
>>When the want to sort by a column they can simply click on a column header. The column
>>header has a property storing the column's associated field name, which is then passed to
>>the LoadList method.
>>
>>To select a custom, multi-column sort they pick it from a list, which runs the following
>>code:
>>
>>

>>IF NOT USED("ListSortDetails")
>>  SELECT 0
>>  USE (oApp.cDataPath + "ListSortDetails")
>>ENDIF
>>
>>SELECT FldName;
>>  FROM ListSortDetails;
>>  WHERE Parent_Id = nSortId;
>>  ORDER BY Sequence;
>>  INTO ARRAY Temp1
>>	
>>FOR nField = 1 TO ALEN(Temp1)
>>	
>>  cSort = cSort + ALLTRIM(Temp1[nField]) + ","
>>
>>ENDFOR
>>	
>>cSort = ALLTRIM(cSort)
>>cSort = LEFT(cSort, LEN(cSort)-1)
>>
>>ThisForm.LoadList(cSort)
>>
>>

>>
>>In either case, the single column header or a custom sort, the field name or sort order
>>string is passed to LoadList. When a sort value is passed in, the SQL's
>>SORT BY clause has the parameter value appended to it.
>>Here's the code:
>>
>>

>>LPARAMETERS cSortOrder
>>
>>LOCAL cListItem, nItemIndex
>>
>>WITH .lstData
>>
>>  .ClearList()
>>
>>  IF EMPTY(cSortOrder)
>>    cSortOrder = "e.internal_id"
>>  ENDIF
>>
>>  select e.id,;
>>      e.caption,;
>>      e.internal_id,;
>>      l.Caption as location,;
>>      e.cur_meter,;
>>      e.model,;
>>      e.serial_no;
>>    from equipment e;
>>    left outer join locations l on l.id = e.location_id;
>>    order by &cSortOrder;
>>    into cursor temp1
>>
>>   IF _TALLY > 0
>>
>>      SELECT Temp1
>>      SCAN
>>		
>>        && ... Add column info here
>>		
>>      ENDSCAN
>>	
>>   ENDIF
>>
>>ENDWITH
>>

>>
>>The problem now is the JOIN. When this code is run against only one table, all
>>ListSortDetails needs to store is the column name.
>>
>>In the case of the JOIN, I now need to store the table alias also.
>>
>>This seems like it could be real cumbersome.
>>
>>Anyone have a better idea?