>>>
>>>Yes David told me they contain paths. I thought them as prefixes. OK then I'd say why not do a single SQL with union if you wouldn't try other ways like xBAse just to be fair to C#.
>>>Cetin
>>
>>Cetin,
>>
>>Do you recommend that single SQL would hit several remote locations? What if there is a connection problem with one of them? He might want to still grab the other locations data. Also, the SQL statement would have to be altered (perhaps by macro substitution) when another office is added.
>
>Steve,
>Scenario could be skinned in many different ways. For connection problems VFP's ability to take offline comes to mind. I don't know what would happen if in real production there is a connection problem, how dynamic are the tables etc.
>Union itself has some limitation on the number of joined tables. But at least it could make multiple DISTINCT queries into one. DISTINCT makes an SQL slower.
>SQL statement could be written on the fly from tables got in array and if it were VFP app multiple SQLs instead of one with left joins or xBase ways might prove to be much better.
>Cetin

With such technologies such as replication and terminal services, one has to ask was it really ncessary to be selecting on data from seven different remote sources in the first place.

Maybe the tool that they are wrinting is an ETL tool pumping the data into a central db, but this seems unlikely because it has the requirement of being able to run ad-hoc queries.

It all seems pretty weird.