Mike,

SORT command creates a free table. SQL Select creates a cursor. A cursor exists inside an application it's created in. So any additional info, as long fields names for example, can be associated with it in application memory. A free table, on other hand, is persistent on the disk or other media and it doesn't have place to store such additional info.

>What is the difference between the two tables? One is created by SQL and is not associated with the DBC and the other is created by sort or copy and is not associated with a DBC either. Why dose the copy / sort have the 10 character name limitations when creating output file and SQL does not?
>
>>What about

SELECT * FROM mytable ;
>>  ORDER BY field1, field2 ;
>>  INTO CURSOR tempfl NOFILTER
>>SELECT mytable
>>ZAP
>>APPEND FROM ( DBF("tempfl") )
>>

>>