Hi,

I keep thinking there should be an easy way to query for what I need but just can't come up with anything so here it goes.

In a typical accounting PO line-item table which stores item number and cost, I need to sum the cost by highest group item number. For example, if I have data similar to show below:


Item # Item Cost
----------------- ---------------
ABC 10.00
ABC1 20.00
ABC23 40.00
ABC456 50.00
XYZ 11.00
XYZ1 22.00
XYZ23 33.00
XYZ456 44.00
etc..

I want a group total that returns the "shortest item #" with associated sum of the costs like so:

Item # Item Cost
----------------- ---------------
ABC 120.00
XYZ 110.00

The tricky part is that the length of the shortest item # in a group is not constant. It would be very easy if it was. Any ideas? TIA.