>>>

SELECT * FROM Table1;
>>>  LEFT OUTER JOIN Table2;
>>>    ON Table1.Field1 = Table2.Field1;
>>> etc. etc.

>>>
>>>Right, Table2.Field1 is indexed, but Table1.Field1 is not, will it make a difference in performance if Table1.Field1 was indexed?
>>
>>Yes. See Sys(3054) in VFP help to see how to determine the level of optimization.
>
>Mark
>
>SYS(3054) reports the same whether Field1 is indexed or not!

Sorry, I made assumption that your etc. etc. included a filter on Table1.Field1. Since you are SELECTing * from Table1, and doing a LEFT JOIN there is nothing to optimize on Table1 because you are indeed selecting ALL records from Table1. Again, now I am making an assumption that there is no filtering of any Table1 fields in the WHERE clause.