Yes, that will do it. Another way would be to use VFP's SQLTABLES command to return a cursor of tables, and then try to LOCATE your desired table in it. Or just wrap a simple SELECT in a TRY...CATCH...ENDTRY block; if you don't get an error you know the table exists. By the way, Firebird's system tables are very well documented in Helen Borrie's excellent "The Firebird Book", which basically taught me the product.