>Hi Dan,
>
>IMO, the following be about the fastest way to get the data you want.
>
>

SELECT YourTable
>SET ORDER TO TAG Ramp
>SEEK "CHICAGO"
>COPY FIELDS Ramp, Vendor, VendCity, VendSt, HourCount ;
>     TO TempTable ;
>     FOR Between( HourCount, 37, 48 ) And Upper( Vendor ) = 'NIKE' ;
>     WHILE Ramp="CHICAGO"

>
>I think it would be hard to get any faster than this with a SQL statement.
>
>Walter,

I think I've finally found the answer. This Select is actually a drill down from another summary table. I've managed to pre-digest the table so that each drilldown corresponds to a single value which I place in a one character field called RampCode. I've simplified somewhat, but basically, using Walter's COPY idea the final code looks like this.

Select RampDrillDown
Set Order To RampCode
Seek "1"

COPY FIELDS Ramp, Vendor, VendCity, VendSt, HourCount ;
     TO tRampDrillDown ;
     WHILE RampCode="1" NoOptimize

The NoOptimize is the key. Without the NoOptimize, this same COPY takes about 20 to 25 seconds. In this case, for whatever reason, optimization fails.

Thanks, all for struggling with me to find a solution.