>>In general you've to do grouping and get only key fields plus affreagete columns. After that you join result of that query back to the source table to get the rest.
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>So, it's like going to flinstone ages again. :( We're loosing a lot of power by conforming to that. If we don't do it, some will say why are you keeping those backward compliant command now instead of using VFP 8 native built in support. If we do, we have to reinvent the wheel again.
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>Now, it's time to take a decision. Should I conform to that new standard or not? :)

Conform or comfort, that is the question. The "thou shalt not have memos in a grouped query" added a few whites to my beard while I was working with SLQ Server 2000 - that's actually a ridiculous limitation, given that it works just fine in VFP 7. And also the mandatory "either in an aggregate function or in a group by list" requirement for all fields involved... the same.

So that's not stone age, that's the standard written by people who never tried it in VFP. Probably it works faster that way - and requires more of our time.

Conforming to standards is fine, to a point. At that point, Set ... 70 would be my choice.