Thanks for the suggestions Mike. I'll give them a try. My only concern is the use of the INLIST function. Would this SQL syntax work with SQL Server and Oracle too? Is it standard SQL? If not, do you have any suggestions as to a similar function that could be used for the latter two databases?

This still leaves me wondering why VFP complains about the length of the statement being too big when it is well below the maximum limit of 8000 chars or so.

Regards,

Mike


>In the last part, just do this...
>
>INLIST(A.FIELD4,1234,2345,3456,4567)
>
>That would shorten the command a lot. The naming convention used by Drew Speedie makes every field name unique, so there is no need for prefacing. This also shortens the SQL commands. BTW, I avoid A, B as aliases. VFP uses A-L as references to the corresponding work areas. M is reserved for memvars.
>