>You're right - I just realized that recno() would not work if we want to number within each group. From the top of my head I don't see a way (except for using UDF) to do it in one command.
>
>Looks like the only correct way of ordering is to use SCAN loop. I know how to write this logic, but is it what you want to do?

yea it does look like a scan thou count from 0 an every row the name remains the same add 1?

PS. I showed my friend the delete my table from mytable inner join dup on mytable.fname=dup.fname code u gave me.
thou it works he's adamant its impossible since where isnt a condition an everythings going to get delete. my excuse that only what gets joined in the two tables are what will be deleted but my reasoning doesnt convince him. is there more too it?