>>Weird, an analogous query works for me in VFP 7 SP1. Maybe a setting difference?
>>
>>Here's my test query. With TasTrade open:
>>
>>SELECT last_name FROM employee ;
>>UNION ;
>>select SPACE(1) as last_name FROM customer
>
>That works for me also. However if the second select is a character field [same data type] of different width, you get the error. My guess is VFP has no table field structure to compare to the first SELECT when you use SPACE(1)

Ah, that makes sense.

Did a little more testing. Anything that turns the 2nd one into an expression solves the problem, even if it still references a field, so you can use ALLTRIM(SomeField) and it'll work.

Guess this goes in the "things to update" file.

Tamar