>>>Wouldn't LEFT JOIN ON alltrim(upper(table1.aid))==alltrim(upper(table2.bid)) work regardless?
>>>
>>Yes, it would. Never used such construction in JOIN myself, but it would work regardless, you're right. Do you have NULL in any of ID fields?
>
>No you don't need alltrim() but may need upper(). You already used "==" operator, right? It ensures that trailing spaces are not important.
>Cetin

Cetin,

If Table1.aID is char 6 and Table2.bID is char 7 or vs. versa using == would result in 0 records match.

Personally I either use GUID or integer PKs, that's why I never had a need to use alltrim. But in Tracy's case (it's her problem) I'd say we either need to use alltrim or pad the shortest string to the longest string length.

You may check this http://www.berezniker.com/display/VFP/String+comparison+in+VFP for better than mine explanation.