Thanks for being a sounding board Mark.

I also have done further testing and generated the same results, full optimization. It appears there might have been some environmental problem when this anomaly occured. I hate it when I cannot reproduce a problem, it leaves that sick uneasy feeling in the gut (with a belly as large as mine that could be a SERIOUS problem). You never know when it will suprise you again. Curious behavior...

>OK. Did that. Optimization is full. Opened SDT Explorer, right-clicked on the table and selected re-index. Executed the SELECT SQL from command window and got full opt again. I do have to SET PROC TO TEST so MkUp function can be found. I am using SDT 5.1J and VFP 6 SP 4.
>
>>Hi Mark,
>>
>>To get full optimization you must set deleted off!. To experience the degredation of performance which occured to me, use the SDT explorer interface for re-indexing.
>>
>>
>>>I tried your code and got partial optimization. I then created a DBC and added the table to it. Ran SDT Explorer to create all the extensions. Then ran the following code to have SDT reindex. I still got partial optimization on the query.

>>>close all
>>>open database gdtest
>>>set database to GDTest
>>>set procedure to program()
>>>oMeta = NewObject("DBCXMgr", "DBCXMgr.VCX")
>>>oMeta.SetDataBase(dbc())
>>>llRetval = oMeta.oSDTMgr.Reindex('', .f., .t.)
>>>close table all
>>>sys(3054,1)
>>>select ctest from test where mkup() = 'A' into cursor curtest
>>>sys(3054,0)
>>>close tables all
>>>release procedure program()
>>>