Amazing, someone else had a similar problem and Edward Pikman had an answer. Thanks Edward!

it was...
sele val(.null.)+000000000 as testno,* from table1

>I have a complex query which I'm doing using a SQL Select with a UNION.
>
>in the first bit I have
>
> select d.amount
>
>and in the second I have
>
> select d.amount
>
>same base table and field! So how come I get an "incompatible" error. Can only assume it's because the numbers get shrunk to their number of characters. So if this was text I could PADR() etc, what's the equivalent for numbers.
>
>thanks in advance
>
>Sarah