This is untested code, but I believe you can do this with a full outer join.

Select nvl(Table1.Item,Table2.Item), ;
      sum(iif(isnull(Table1.Item),0,1)+iif(isnull(Table2.Item),0,1)) as ItemCnt ;
   from Table1 ;
      full outer join Table2 on Table1.Item = Table2.Item

>Is it possible to write 1 select statement in VFP that will return the frequency of items across two tables. For Instance I have two separate tables that contain information about the use of a product. I want to see the total frequency of each item across the tables
>
>Table 1
>Item RespondentId SurveyId
>Item 1 1 1
>Item 1 2 1
>Item 1 3 1
>Item 2 1 1
>
>
>Table 2
>Item RespondentId SurveyId
>Item 1 1 2
>Item 2 2 2
>Item 1 3 2
>Item 2 1 2
>
>I would like 1 select statement that returns
>
>Item Freq
>Item 1 5
>Item 2 3
>
>
>Is this possible in VFP without appending the two tables first?
>
>Thanks for the help.