thanks so much stefan - your code works nicely. i've read through the VFP notes on cursor etc and I am having trouble adapting the syntax to my database. No matter what i do i can't seem to populate the table when it appears.

Is there more to it than changing your intial temp set up code

for example let's say these are my working elements
mydatabase.dbf
field names: sname, w1,w2,w2,w4,w5

stefan feel free to not respond if this requires more explanation than you have time for - many thanks for the point in the right direction,
k

CREATE CURSOR temp (f1 i, f2 c(20))
INSERT INTO temp VALUES (1, 'one')
INSERT INTO temp VALUES (2, 'two')
GO TOP IN temp