>OK, that makes more sense but it still doesn't follow the rules. You are only grouping on Detail.bccode. All other fields in Detail as well as Codes.Desc are going to be junk (or could possibly be). See Thread#852868 for more information.
>>

>>SELECT Detail.*, count(*) as Total, Codes.desc;
>> FROM ;
>>     detail ;
>>    LEFT OUTER JOIN codes ;
>>   ON  Detail.bccode = Codes.code;
>> GROUP BY Detail.bccode;
>> ORDER BY Detail.bccode
>>

Ok, I kinda get a feel for "the rule". I agree with the notion that the best solution means not using SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR as a workaround --- but only with new stuff. I've got acres of old code by programmer-de-jour to support that I'm not going to "fix" with anything but SET ENGINEBEHAVIOR 70. (Ya know, I've actually found some of these 'junk' fields referenced in code.)

So, if starting from scratch I would choose to do it as (below)

Thanks Larry,
Steven-
-------------------------------------

SELECT Detail.bccode, count(*) as Total, Codes.desc;
 FROM ;
     detail ;
    LEFT OUTER JOIN codes ;
   ON  Detail.bccode = Codes.code;
 GROUP BY Detail.bccode, Codes.desc;
 ORDER BY Detail.bccode