I am assuming that you mean that VFP is trying to generate an index on the fly. If so, and if you can live w/o optimization, you can try running the query with the NOOPTIMIZE parameter. Not sure about this, but I think in that case VFP will not generate indexes on the fly. Someone else may know the definitive answer to this.

Bill

>Hi,
>
>I got the above error in the following query
>
>select a.* from Table1 a where a.field1="xxx" and ;
>!exists (select * from Table1 b where b.field1="yyy" and b.field2=a.field2)
>
>I discovered the error is caused by field2 having length 254. Obviously, VFP is trying to generate an index on theis field, then discovering the key is too long. (over 240)
>
>Is there a remedy for this? In my case I could use another field, and also use part of the field, but generally I see a problem here. And what if I had an existing query that suddenly went wrong because I lengthened a field?
>
>
>
>
>Auke