>>I think the second should be faster, so I would be surprised if you got different results in your tests.
>
>What's a good way to test so as to eliminate the effects of cached data and stuff? The data is on free tables on a server on our lan, and I am runnnig the app on my desktop, so the data is coming over the LAN.
>
>I want to be sure I do not mess up the results by having it the data cached or something.

I'm not exactly sure.

I would probably try in a loop of, say, 5 the first way and get the time (longest - would be the first run, then min and average). Then close VFP, walk out from the computer for 10 minutes, come back and re-run the second.