>>>_tally is the ONLY correct way since reccount() may report the total number of records in the table if VFP decides to simply add a filter.
>>
>>Not totally sure if the order-clause does not imply an automatic nofilter and was too lazy to test <g>
>
>I always use _tally, since it's always safe.

Yupp, but the original code counted the records - first priority in perf opt is to keep behaviour identical.
It is highly probable that _tally is the intended behaviour so I switched reccount() into comment, as the OP is not too firm on vfp finer points and not too get hooked up on irrelevant points.