Nick,

>SQL: Statement too Long (error 1812). What is going on here? help appreciated

You are probably updating more than the default 40 fields allowed, without a key field identified for the view updates. This can result in the error you are getting.

From VFP Help for TABLEUPDATE( ) Function:

Note Calling TABLEUPDATE( ) for a local table or view that doesn’t use key fields generates a long WHERE clause to find the update row. The default number of fields supported in the WHERE clause is 40. If you receive the error 1812 - SQL: Statement Too Long, you should either use a key field for the update or increase the complexity of the WHERE clause with SYS(3055). If you use SYS(3055), increase its value to 8 times the number of fields in the table:

= SYS(3055, 8 * MIN(40, FCOUNT( ))