>All above because join conditions processed in strict order in VFP.

Actually, that's not generally true. You can prove it by using SYS(3054,11) before the queries. The results will show you the order in which joins are being done. The VFP query engine analyzes the query and tries to make it as fast as possible.

Having said that, using outer joins does limit the optimization VFP can do. With outer joins, there are more constraints on the optimizer.

Tamar