Thanks. I like that much better -- great idea. I wish I had been more specific with the first question.
Doug

>>I was afraid that was the answer. Is there anything I need to watch out for using RECCOUNT()? Everything seems to be working fine for now. I'm using this to see if the SQL returns any "child" records before deleting a parent record.
>
>Doug,
>
>What about using a subquery in the WHERE clause of the DELETE to prevent the deletion if any children exists:
>
>DELETE FROM parent
>WHERE pk = something AND NOT EXIST
>(SELECT * FROM child WHERE fk = parent_pk)
>
>-Mike