You've to convert memo field into string for select with DISTICST clause to work. I would recomend to use PADR() function to do that because ALLTRIM() could produce unpredictable results.

SELECT DISTINCT EMP_ID, PADR(notes,254) AS notes ;
  FROM EMPLOYEE WHERE COUNTRY = 'UK'

BTW, there're also other changes in SELECT-SQL that make it more ANSI SQL compatible. You can switch SQL engine into VFP7 compatibility mode with new SYS(3099) function.

? SYS(3099, 70)

However, it will also turn off any bug fixes in SQL engine in VFP8.

>Thanks for the info Sergey !
>
>Do you have an sample how to wrap and MEMO field using alltrim that works in VFP 8.0 Beta?
>
>PETER