I have 2 suggestions for you:

1) You create a UDF that return the next index # for the current master #

CREATE CURSOR Temp (Master I, NextIndex I)
SELECT Master, MyUDF(Master) AS Index, Item FROM MyTable
USE IN Temp

FUNCTION MyUDF (lnMaster)
LOCAL lnAlias, lnIndex
lnAlias = Alias()
SELECT Temp
LOCATE FOR Master = lnMaster

IF Found()
   REPLACE NextIndex WITH NextIndex + 1
ELSE
   INSERT INTO Temp VALUES (lnMaster, 1)
ENDIF

lnAlias = NextIndex
SELECT (lnAlias)
RETURN lnIndex

2) You create a placeholder in the SELECT-SQL and you do a scan to fill it

SELECT Master, 0 AS Index, Item FROM MyTable INTO TABLE Temp ORDER BY 1
lnI = 0
lnMaster = Master
SCAN
   IF lnMaster = Master
      lnI = lnI + 1
   ELSE
      lnMaster = Master
      lnI = 1
   ENDIF
   REPLACE Index WITH lnI
ENDSCAN

Note that the second option needs a physical table on disk. There is a way to open a cursor created with a SELECT-SQL as read-write, but I don't remember it by hear (somthing like USE AGAIN IN 0 ALIAS)

HTH

>Say I have a table that looks like this:
>
>

>
>   master     item
>     1        apple
>     1        banana
>     1        pear
>     2        tomato
>     2        apricot
>     3        squash
>     4        turnip
>     4        orange
>
>

>
>I want to get this:
>
>

>
>   master  #   item
>     1     1   apple
>     1     2   banana
>     1     3   pear
>     2     1   tomato
>     2     2   apricot
>     3     1   squash
>     4     1   turnip
>     4     2   orange
>
>

>
>Is there a way to do this with SQL? It seems like there should be, but it's eluding me. I'm trying to number the items so I can combine a bunch of records into one in a different SQL so I can print the labels I was asking about earlier.