Maybe select would be faster in this case?

SET TALK ON NOWINDOW
SELECT * FROM new ;
  WHERE new.ssn + new.holder_num + DTOS(new.date_rem) NOT IN ( ;
    SELECT old.ssn + old.holder_num + DTOS(old.date_rem) FROM old ) ;
  INTO CURSOR crsAdditions
SET TALK OFF

>It's about the same. This is a data cd I get from the state every month. The processing we are doing is to figure out what they have added in the past month. So basically every time I run this, it takes the file from 400,000 records to usually a couple or few thousand. So to answer your question, almost the entire file is deleted every month. KP
>
>>>No, the routine before this one alters the table and packs it. Also, I just ran the routine using last months data (approx the same size) and this routine ran in about 10 minutes. Very frustrating!!!
>>>
>>Hi Kevin,
>>
>>Maybe this month many more records have to be deleted? How many records were deleted last month and how many will be deleted this month?