Try any sql query such as this:
sele dist alltrim(accountno) as x,count(*)as counts from customer group by x order by counts desc
?_vfp.statusbar

Selected 24265 records in 0.78 seconds

However, if I try to set this to a variable I get this number every time.

sele dist alltrim(accountno) as x,count(*)as counts from customer group by x order by counts desc
x = _vfp.statusbar
?x
2252385

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My first question would be why do you want to trap this ??? My second question would be why not use the _Tally system variable. It holds the number of records retrieved by the query. If you want to know how long it took to get the records, trap the time before your query started, and then again immediately after. The difference is the ET.

Jason Tryon
Ingram Book Group