>Now: How about when the data is in 2 files, FooA and FooB and the latest date could be in either. Could you do this in one SQL statement with UNION? How?

:-)

Select Foo.Item, Foo.date, MAX(Foo.Price) AS Foo.Price ;
from (SELECT * FROM FooA;
      UNION ALL;
      SELECT * FROM FooB) Foo;
INNER JOIN (SELECT Item, MAX(Date) AS Date;
            FROM (SELECT * FROM FooA;
                  UNION ALL;
                  SELECT * FROM FooB) Foo;
            GROUP BY Item) Foo1;
      ON Foo.Item = Foo1.Item AND Foo.Date = Foo1.Date;
GROUP BY Foo.Item, Foo.date;
into cursor boo