Hi Greg,

>The underlying table is Keyed on Familyid (Seq#). How do I get the maximum number from the Family table without changing the sort order and inserting a new row.

Erik answered your question. But are you trying to create a unique ID automattically for a primary key? If so, this is useually handled another way. In the Solutions Sample included with VFP, under Databases > Tables there is a "Create a Unique default id for a field". Check it out.