Hi Cetin/Erik

I tried the following:

select patient.sn, patient.fn, patient.dob, referrals.date ;
from inpatients!patient ;
left join inpatients!referrals ;
on patient.mno=referrals.mno ;
.and. referrals.date IN
(SELECT TOP 1 referrals.date;
from referrals;
where referrals.mno=patient.mno;
order by referrals.date desc);
into cursor bob

but get an error message 'Function Name is Missing)'

any ideas....and thanks for your help so far. Incidentally, the most recent is not necessarily the most recent by date as a user may retrospectively add a new record which was missed earlier on; I need the most recent by date

Regards,

Bob