RE: Newbie question on SQL

I have never seen the outer with two arguments. Try: SELECT a.a1, b.b1, c.c1 FROM a_table a, OUTER b_table b, OUTERc_table c WHERE a.a1=b.b1 AND b.b1=c.c1 Does the process hang, or does it run forever ?? Check by doing : ps -eaf | grep dbaccess and check if the process is running and using many seconds of cpu time. If that is the case then perhaps you are trying to join 3 very large tables. Do the tables have indexes?? Perhaps add indexes on the fields you are searching on. ie create unique index a_ind0 on a ( a1 ) ; do this on all tables. If this field is not unique, then drop the word unique. You my wish to divide this sql into two parts ie : SELECT a.a1, b.b1 FROM a_table a, OUTER b_table b WHERE a.a1=b.b1 into temp ab ; SELECT ab.*, c.c1 FROM ab, OUTER c_table c WHERE ab.b1=c.c1 I hope this helps. Isaac __________________________________ Isaac Loven. Melbourne. Australia _________________________________________________________