READWRITE makes the Email cursor (the result of the SELECT query) act like a table. You can add or delete rows, change the existing contents etc. If you don't include READWRITE the cursor is read-only.

>thanks again Al. Works very smoothly now.
>
>re the read write - not quite there yet, are you saying this would open the query table and allow input?
>INTO CURSOR Email readwrite &&& not working ---- is that what you meant??
>
>k
>
>>>I am getting an error read on the second line - anyone know why? tnx k
>>>

>>>CREATE CURSOR email (email C(40))
>>>INSERT INTO Email (Email)     &&&  syntax error
>>>select email from myDbf1 ;
>>>UNION ;
>>>SELECT email from myDBF2;
>>>UNION ;
>>>SELECT email from myDBF3;
>>>UNION ;
>>>SELECT email from myDBF4
>>>

>>>>
>>>>UNION eliminates duplicates so the resulting cursor will have all unique emails from your 4 DBFs.
>>
>>There are only supposed to be 2 commands in what you've shown; there should be a semicolon at the end of the 2nd line.
>>
>>You don't have to create the cursor in advance - a SQL SELECT can do it for you:
>>

>>SELECT email from myDBF1 ;
>>UNION ;
>>SELECT email from myDBF2 ;
>>UNION ;
>>SELECT email from myDBF3 ;
>>UNION ;
>>SELECT email from myDBF4 ;
>>INTO CURSOR Email
>>* if you need a read-write cursor you can add READWRITE to the very end of the above command
>>