I'll have to give the FMTONLY approach a try. Although I haven't had any problems yet with TOP 0.

Bruce Allen vs. Allen Bruce - Yep, it's especially confusing on those forms that specify "last name first", etc. I get asked, "Is it 'Allen Bruce' or 'Bruce Allen' quite frequently. I grew up in a small Texas county where the other 2 Bruce Allens were attorneys. As a result, I didn't get called for jury duty until years after I moved away from there!

Best of luck with your SQL project.

- Bruce


>>>What is the equivalent in SQL-server SQL pass-through of NODATA ? I.e how can I force an empty cursor -- efficiently? (This must be a dumb question!)
>>
>>Have you tried SELECT TOP 0 ? As in...
>> SELECT TOP 0 * FROM pubs
>>
>>TOP 0 chokes VFP, but MS SQL-Server supports it.
>------------
>Thanks, Bruce. I thought I'd try that, since it looked from the SQL-server doc that TOP 0 was the same as setting a temporary record limit. I was also planning to try the FMTONLY that Andrew suggested.
>
>BTW, I have a friend here named Allen Bruce.
>
>-- Tom