I can't quite remember, something like invalid SQL... it was a while ago, now. And the work around was somewhat totally unrelated to the syntax:

What I had to do was add the qualifier "NOFILTER" on the end of the previous SQL that created the cursor I was executing the SQL on. There's a little note in the help that previous versions of VFP (ie 3) needed this to create a cursor that could have another SQL run on it. I figure this is a result of my having converted a 2.6 app to 5.0 and something in the converter went squirrelly. (That's a professional term, ya know:))

Adding
>Laurisa,
>
>What is the error message?