>> Additionally, you can quickly cause a Cartesian product if you use SELECT * with any kind of join condition. <<

SELECT * really has no to do with a Cartesian join. A Cartesian join occurs when you join two tables and don't provide a join condition. In that case, every record from the first table is matched with every record from the second table.

However, in general, it is better to select only the fields you need, particularly if VFP has to create a disk presence for the result.

Tamar