Thanks Tamar.

I did sys(3054) and received the following:

Rushmore optimization level for table t_memo: none
Rushmore optimization level for table memo_type: none
Joining table memo_type and table t_memo using index tag Type_numbe

the first thing that sticks out to me is that the index tag is "type_numbe" and not "type_number". I tried changing the name of the index in the table structure to "type_number", but it is too many letters. however, i thought that the expression is what would be used, and the expression is "type_number". i must be incorrect as the index tag listed by sys(3054) is "type_numbe", but can't seem to change this.

This however still doesn't explain the discrepancy between running the query in vfp8.0 vs. in my app. Then again, maybe that is normal to have a discrepancy like what i showed in my previous message.

Any ideas? Thanks again,

Paul