>

SELECT state FROM table2 ;
>  WHERE State NOT IN (SELECT state FROM table1)
>* or using correlated query
>SELECT state FROM table2 ;
>  WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT state FROM table1 WHERE state = table2.state )
>
>

While VFP might optimize a correlated subquery like yours, in generally, when you can write a readable query without a correlated subquery, it's a better choice. (To the best of my knowledge, any correlated EXISTS query can be rewritten as an IN query, but sometimes the result is pretty obscure.)

Tamar