As Rip already mentioned, just do a SET DELETED ON and it'll work.

The reason it doesn't work as you posted it is because SQL doesn't work when referencing aliases in functions like DELETED("alias") or RECNO("alias") when SELECTing from more than one table.

This is because SELECT actually re-opens the tables AGAIN in a different work area and works on *those*. So when you're referencing DELETED("vitems"), VFP is doing exactly what you're saying and is looking at the current record in VITEMS and not at the record of the opened-again VITEMS being used in the query... and it will be looking at that *one* record throughout the whole query. So if the current record of VITEMS happens to be marked as deleted and you run your query, you'll get nothing.

Hope this helps.

--Brad