Francois,

Let's cut to the chase here, you are running around a tree. The SELECT statement will query a table or a group of tables and produce a result set. When you use the SELECT command the only DEPENDABLE way to know the number of records in the result is _TALLY. That's it, no more confussion, simple. FORGET RECCOUNT() when SELECT is involved. Don't use it, ever, for nothing, not, never, no, ok?

So if you see SELECT you use _TALLY if you see no SELECT you can use RECCOUNT().

 SELECT * FROM Whatever ...
 _TALLY


 USE MyDbf
 ? RECCOUNT() && unless you are concerned about not counting deleted records
              && then use
 COUNT FOR NOT DELETED() TO Howmany
 ?Howmany