I think I may try to find myself a copy of that book. I know the way the data is supposed to fit and my from/where joins are strict enough that they are working the way an INNER JOIN would. Now the fact about the LEFT JOIN is something I will have to think about. This system is going to take over for the legacy system. An AS-400 I think. PACKARD COBOL. HAHAHAHA in fact they all freaked out because I'm 27 and I know COBOL. I asked for the COBOL source for the legacy report because I was tring to figure out the grouping from just a report print out.... and it wasn't what I would call clear cut...

I most likely will update the query to use more modern Joins. This one is just the first draft....

thx for the info