Vlad,

The big table is missing an index on deleted() physically it will never have deleted records the data is realtime machine production data, so I've forgotten to SET DELETED OFF in the method that executes the query. I'll double check sys(3054) I brought back the 40meg table with me so I can do better performance testing.

>I would say that neither of them. Still, for both of them, the index must be created. Did you use the sys(3054) to see the optimization status? Is an outer join optimizable?
>
>I assume you also have an index on iCode and deleted().