>>Hi,
>>
>>It seems to me that I cannot rely on using RECCOUNT() to report number of records in a cursor (created with SQL Select) unless I use NOFILTER or READWRITE. That is, in my test, RECCOUNT() often returns number of records in the FROM table of SQL Select instead of the cursor. Is this correct?
>
>Yes. Basically, Visual FoxPro may decide it is more efficient to USE...AGAIN a table and put a filter, instead of selecting into a separate cursor. While all this is internal, and automatic, you do notice the difference sometimes, especially with the recno() and reccount() functions.
>
>The solution is to either use _tally to save the number of records selected to a variable, or - as you mentioned - use the NOFILTER clause.
>
>NOFILTER has another important use, too. If Visual FoxPro were to decide to internally use a filtered table instead of a separate table, you can't use that to SELECT into another cursor. With NOFILTER, you assure that you can SELECT from the result of the query, to another query.

Thank you for the explanation.