>I have run some SQL statements that are less than 1000 characters. These I execute as a macro , ie
>cSQL = "create SQL view as select * from specs .... etc"
>&cSQL
>
>- this works in all cases.
>
>So the problem is when I text to file, compile the file and run it.

Hmm... if your goal is to run a long CREATE SQL VIEW statement I'm not sure why you're writing it out to a separate .PRG in the first place.

Some things you might try instead:

- this is really basic, but I've got to ask: you *do* know about the use of * in SELECT - SQL e.g.

SELECT ;
  * ;
  FROM MyTable...

* or, for multiple tables you can get * from just those that are needed:
SELECT ;
  Spec.*, ;
  ...some other columns from other tables...
  FROM Spec, OtherTables...

- use the alias clause for tables in the join. This can shorten the string length:

SELECT ;
  A.Col1, ;
  A.Col2, ;
  ... ;
  FROM Spec A ;
  ...

Another thing you can do is use macro expansion for individual clauses in SELECT, rather than for the whole thing:

SELECT ;
  &lcColumnExpression ;
  FROM &lcJoinExpression ;
  WHERE &lcWhereExpression ;
  ORDER BY &lcOrderByExpression ;
  ...