Hi Zahid,

>Sergey -
>Are you sure EMPTY() is not optimizable? I don't know why it would not be, since it has a fairly unambiguous meaning.

It isn't. Click on the link I provided and look for EMPTY(). If you don't belive the help either, run some test with Sql Select and SYS(3054).

>Also, it might be faster to perform the SPACE(LEN(web_exp)) once and assign it to a variable, and then reference that variable in the SQL. I'm pretty sure that VFP will evaluate the WHERE clause for every record if it involves a field in the table.

>zahid
>
>>Hi Sunshine,
>>
>>In order to speed up your query you have to let VFP to use Rushmore. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/fox7help/html/dgUsing_Rushmore_to_Speed_Data_Access.asp for how it works. To make your select Rushmore optimazable you've to:
>>- create index on 'web_exp' field in the 'student' table
>>- Replace Empty() function in the query because it's not optimazable
>>

select courseid, classid, studentid, birthdate, firstname, middlei, ;
>>       lastname, address, city, state, zip ;
>>  from student ;
>>  where web_exp = SPACE( LEN(web_exp )) ;
>>  into table c:\tempweb
>>

Now it should be much faster.
>>
>>>I have the following code that takes forever to run. Can anyone suggest ways of speeding up the process?
>>>
>>>select courseid,classid,studentid,birthdate,firstname,middlei,lastname,address,city,state,zip;
>>>from student;
>>>where empty(web_exp);
>>>into table c:\tempweb
>>>
>>>open database hunter
>>>use vwhe_card
>>>append from c:\tempweb
>>>
>>>*!* want to do this later just in case the above didn't work
>>>select student
>>>set filter to empty(web_exp)
>>>replace web_exp with date() all
>>>
>>>I've also tried:
>>>use student
>>>set filter to empty(web_exp)
>>>
>>>open database hunter
>>>use vwhe_card
>>>append from student
>>>
>>>The database has over 390000 records. For test data, I'm looking for 42 records and it's taking so long. Should I set an index?
>>>
>>>I would appreciate any help and thanks in advance!
>>>Sunshine