If you're going to construct a list in a variable, you could use INLIST(): LOCAL aStateArray[1],cBadStateWhereCond,nCtr SELECT '"'+BadState+'"' FROM bad_st INTO ARRAY aStateArray cBadStateWhereCond = IIF(_TALLY > 0, '!INLIST(State,' + aStateArray[1], ".T.") FOR nCtr = 2 TO _TALLY cBadStateWhereCond = cBadStateWhereCond + ',' + aStateArray[nCtr] ENDFOR IF cBadStateWhereCond) # ".T." cBadStateWhereCond = cBadStateWhereCond + ")" ENDIF RELEASE aStateArray, nCtr SELECT * FROM x WHERE &cBadStateWhereCond > >I have a very intenstive app that has 100,000 records >that need to be evaluated one at a time for 25 different >conditions. > >One of the conditions is to check and see if any of 4 >state codes are contained within a field of the record. >I want a data driven solutoin since the states can expand >and contract. I can NOT do a simple SELECT * FROM >x where z NOT IN (sub select). > >What is the fastest non-hard coded way to perform this >type of query? The data in the bad_st table will be constant >for the duration of the program if that helps. I was considering >creating a character variable that is a comma separated >list. > >What are your thoughts? > Attachment Converted: Edward M Rauh.vcf