Paige:
If I now understand correctly, then I think that what you are asking gets into transactions. Excuse me if I misunderstand.

If you want the TABLEUPDATEs to be conditional...that is, if one fails they all fail, then you wrap the TABLEUPDATEs in a BEGIN TRANSACTION. Jim Booth posted a nice clear example yesterday of his method. Generally, mine is similar:

BEGIN TRANSACTION
  IF TABLEUPDATE( 2,.T.,cParentAlias) .AND. ;
     TABLEUPDATE( 2,.T.,cChild1Alias) .AND. ;
     TABLEUPDATE( 2,.T.,cChild2Alias) && .AND. so on
    END TRANSACTION
  ELSE
   ROLLBACK
   TABLEREVERT( .T.,cParentAlias)
   TABLEREVERT( .T.,cChild1Alias)
   TABLEREVERT( .T.,cChild2Alias)
  ENDIF

AFAIK, the concept is similar for views.

>Thanks Nancy,
>
>I should have been more specfic on part two of my question:
>
>...until/unless a TABLEUPDATE() is executed for EACH child work area.