You could BROWSE the cursor.

>Sorry Tore, I misstated the problem - there are no errors on the other hand it has no visible effect
>I assumed the query table would open up to allow edit after the readwrite command.
>
>
>>That should work. If not, please show the exact select statement you tried.
>>
>>>Thanks Al - it was the syntax I was having problem with -you had mentioned adding it to the final command thus
>>>

>>>INTO CURSOR Email READWRITE 
>>>

>>>which didn't work for me. - I was wondering if that was what you meant.
>>>
>>>k
>>>
>>>>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
>>>>>>