Edgar,

You can simplify it further and speed it up by using:

select ... isdigit( contact ) as lorder

In VFP the ORDER BY requires a column from the result, in SQLServer it doesn't need to be.

>I like it - but we need one step further so that the output to text does not reflect cord!
>
>>You can simplify it a little bit.

>>SELECT ...,
>>  IIF(LEFT(contact,1) >= "A", "1", "2") AS cord ;
>>  ORDER BY cord, contact
>>  ...