>could you elaborate and little on your explanation for those of us
that are just learning VFP?

First- are you using a Database, or two free tables? Fox2x uses these terms interchangeably. Now you need to understand how much cooler the database is.

A table is a database File. (.DBF) The Database Container (.DBC) stores information about the location of several tables, as well as other information related to the collection of tables. Stored procedures, for example, are (usually) routines related to the tables in the Database - maintenance or integrity checking, etc. Also stored in the DBC are views. Views are basically SQL queries with a very useful difference - they remain linked to the original data so when the view data is updated, the original table is updated.

If i had known how to use views 6 months ago, when i was first using VFP, i'd have saved myself a lot of work now. In my case, I have a collection of tables which will grow considerably over time. Even with indexes, there is still the potential for slow performance. I could have created a parameterized view (p-view) that selected the fields from 3 tables together for the last week's time period. The resultant View would not require the use of indexes and relations for three tables, and the maximum number of records i'd ever have to work with would be exactly the number in my time period (as opposed to the entire history table)

If you haven't already, make sure to put your application into a Project. The project manager makes it very easy to see/use the database container, form designer, view designer, etc. Eventually, you might want to build an runtime executable; using the project manager is the way to do it.

BTW, i understand that the answers provided by VFP gurus on UT are sometimes beyond the novice VFP user (I'm still pretty new myself) Like any spoken language, i think sometimes they forget that not everyone is fluent in VFP, but they'll usually translate into simpler explanations if you ask.