>Hmmmm...maybe the first part of the query is setting up a temp table where nulls are not allowed, huh? How about substituting NVL(fieldname,SPACE(20)) and the like for those columns in the SQL statement that may be NULL? (Substitute SPACE(20) for whatever the type/length equiv would be to keep the UNION valid).

It seems like using NVL() is the only viable solution to me. I guess a rule of thumb would be to use NVL when using outer joins and SQL unions. This is really a pain though.

Nancy Folsom also suggested changing the fields in base table(s) to support NULLs. This is not option for me, since the base tables are in FoxPro 2.x.

Thanks for your input!