Thanks Naomi.

I must be feeling particularly dense today.

Nick



>>Here we are again
>>
>>

>>select individual_ref from contact where individual_ref in (190999,191000,191001,191002)
>>

>>
>>returns
>>
>>191002
>>191002
>>
>>there are 2 matching records. Thats correct
>>
>>
>>

>>select individual_ref from individual where family_ref = 190997
>>

>>
>>returns
>>
>>190999
>>191000
>>191001
>>191002
>>
>>again thats correct
>>
>>So why would
>>
>>

>>select i.individual_ref from individual i where not EXISTS (select c.individual_ref from contact c ) 
>>

>>
>>return no rows ?
>>
>>I'm expecting
>>
>>190999
>>191000
>>191001
>>
>>any ideas .
>>
>>Thanks
>
>Because your subquery is not linked to the main query. It should be:
>
>

>select i.individual_ref from individual i 
>where not EXISTS (select 1 from contact c where c.individual_ref = i.Individual_Ref ) 
>

>
>The way you wrote your query just checks if the Contact table has at least one row. If it's true, it will return 0 records.