>What I had to do because goofball named a field 'number' was:
>
>Select "NUMBER", field2, ... from TableName ...
>
>You have to use all caps and enclose in "full quotes".
>
>I think the best solution (read: this is what I did) is to create a view on this table that duplicates the structure in every way except rename the "NUMBER" field to something else. Then use the ViewName in all your selects and everything will work as usual.

Mark,

Thanks for your reply, the thing that worries me about this problem is it is intermittent and is sometimes solved by packing the table.

The view idea is a good one and may be better than altering the base table.