>>with SET ANSI ON ? ( i have not VFP9 )
>
>No, SET ANSI was OFF in VFP8 and VFP9.
>
>With SET ANSI ON VFP8 is a little bit faster - 0.007 and VFP9 is much faster - 0.008 because query became optimazible:
>
>Rushmore optimization level for intermediate result: none
>Rushmore optimization level for intermediate result: none
>Rushmore optimization level for intermediate result: none
>Joining intermediate result and intermediate result using temp index

In fact, i think this is not a programming bug.

If you have time, you can try the same select schema with grouping a numeric/date/...,
i think these are all optimizable.

On VFP9, with ANSI OFF, VFPT have disabled the optimization for a lot of string comparison
see Thread #971562
Therefore, many SELECT will become much slower on vfp9.

Fabio