>Jim, I can not use a LEFT JOIN cause table2 is a child and has many part_numbers of the same and table1 is the parent with unique part_numbers.
>example....
>table1 value
>part_number 123
>
>table2 value
>part_number 123
>part_number 123
>Part_number 123
>any other ideas?

SELECT Table1.Part_number, Table2.St, States.State_name ;
FROM Table1 LEFT JOIN Table2 ON Table1.Part_number = Table2.Part_number ;
LEFT JOIN States ON Table2.St = States.St ;
INTO CURSOR MyResult ;
GROUP BY Table1.Part_number, Table2.St, States.State_name

Please read under SELECT-SQL in the docs and see the difference/similarities between SELECT DISTINCT and GROUP BY. There are extensive discussions of things like this in Joe Celko's SQL For Smarties, Second Edition, which is what I have studied to learn SQL where the FoxPro docs didn't tell me enough.

As programmers, we ALL work with "other people's code" on a daily basis. Those of us who volunteer to help others here volunteer to help them with problems WE didn't create. Part of what makes a good programmer is learning how to figure out OPC and refine it to make it faster or more efficient or easier to understand and maintain.