>I have the following tables
>
>claims.dbf
>claim_id I
>....
>
>
>claims2.dbf
>claim2_id I
>claims_ID I
>fromdate D
>status C(10)
>....
>
>
>for each claims.claim_id I need the max(claims2.fromdate) and the associated status for this date for a given data of ldDate
>
>meaning: what was the status of claims 123 ... 456 on 06/30/2003 for example
>

In VFP 9, you can do something like:

SELECT Claims.Claim_ID, MaxClaim.FromDate, Claims2.Status ;
FROM Claims ;
JOIN (SELECT Claims_ID, MAX(FromDate) AS FromDate ;
FROM Claims2 ;
GROUP BY Claims_ID) MaxClaim ;
ON Claims.Claim_ID = MaxClaim.Claims_ID ;
JOIN Claims2 ;
ON Claims2.Claims_ID = MaxClaim.Claims_ID ;
AND Claims2.FromDate = MaxClaim.FromDate

You may have to tweak that a bit, but it should give you the idea.

Tamar