The solution you're refering to works in VFP9 only. So does your query.

>Just wondering quite recent solution for Thread #1147165
>may be altered to be used for self-referential table ( id , parent_id )
>
>

>select mytable.id,mytable.descript,step1.CountChildren from mytable ;
>inner join ;
>(select parent_id , count(*) as CountChildren from mytable group by parent_id ) step1 ;
>on mytable.id = step1.parent_id
>

>
>Statement above gives a syntax error
>
>