>I have a parent table (Customer.DBF) and child table (Invoice.dbf). I want to list all customers with invoice information. Using a Select command, what is the best way to list ALL customers, whether they have matching invoices or not.
>
>For instance, the following will ONLY return records that find a matching invoice:
>
>Select * ;
> from customer, invoice ;
> where invoice.cust_id = customer.cust_id ;
> into cursor temp
>
>What is the best way to handle this, preferably in a single SELECT command?
>
>Thanks,
>
>David

The simplest way is to use the new JOIN syntax (VFP 5 or later).

Your above query is equivalent to the following:

Select * ;
  from customer join invoice on Customer.Cust_Id = Invoice.Cust_Id;
  into cursor temp

To get all customers, add the LEFT clause:

Select * ;
  from customer LEFT join invoice on Customer.Cust_Id = Invoice.Cust_Id;
  into cursor temp

For customers without invoices, you will get NULL values for the corresponding fields in invoices.

For a quick start, use the query designer (CREATE QUERY), which creates this syntax automatically.

HTH,

Hilmar.