>>Naomi - Your version errors with a message that says queries of this type are not supported.
>>
>>After thinking about this some more I realized I don't really need anything from the parent table. Everything I need can be had from the child table. Just 3 fields CUSTID, _YEAR, and AMOUNT, where I select only the most recent year. This should simplify it a bit. It should look something like:
>>

>>select custid, max(_year), amount ;
>>from orders ;
>>group by custid 
>>

>>
>>This seems to work with the first 2 fields but fails when I add the third even when I tweak the GROUP BY clause.
>
>The TOP 1 version doesn't work in VFP, unfortunately.
>
>This works fine:
>
>

>* Test data
>CREATE CURSOR Customers (CustNo int, CustomerName C(100))
>INSERT INTO Customers VALUES (1,'Cust1')
>INSERT INTO Customers VALUES (2,'Cust2')
>
>CREATE CURSOR Orders (OrderID int , CustNo int, Amount N(10,2), OrderDate date)
>INSERT INTO Orders VALUES (1, 1, 10, DATE() - 10)
>INSERT INTO Orders VALUES (2, 1, 100, DATE())
>INSERT INTO Orders VALUES (3, 2, 100, DATE() - 5)
>INSERT INTO Orders VALUES (4, 2, 1020, DATE())
>
>* Subquery solution
>select Cust.*, Ord.Amount, Ord.OrderDate from Customers Cust INNER JOIN Orders Ord on Cust.CustNo = Ord.CustNo ;
>where Ord.OrderDate >= (select MAX(OrderDate) from Orders O where O.CustNo = Cust.CustNo)
>
>* Packed value solution
>select Cust.*, LO.LastDate, cast(RIGHT(LO.DateAmount,100) as N(12,4)) as Amount from Customers Cust ;
>INNER JOIN (select CustNo, max(OrderDate) as LastDate, ;
>max(cast(Orderdate as C(10)) + cast(Amount as C(100))) as DateAmount ;
>from Orders group by CustNo) LO on Cust.CustNo = LO.CustNo
>
>* derived tables solution
>select Cust.*, LO.LastDate, O.Amount from Customers Cust ;
>INNER JOIN (select CustNo, max(OrderDate) as LastDate ;
>from Orders O group by CustNo) LO on Cust.CustNo = LO.CustNo ;
>inner join Orders O on LO.CustNo = O.CustNo and LO.LastDate = O.OrderDate
>
>

Thanks Naomi. I like the subquery solution. It seems to work fine plus its short and sweet. Any reason to consider either of the other two versions?