The AS/400 has pretty good SQL support. There's a DB2/400 section in the link I posted earlier (the iseries information site, very good). Here's the direct link to the SQL reference: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/pubs/html/as400/v4r5/ic2924/index.htm?info/db2/rbafzmst02.htm I get some web errors with IE 5.5 on the site, but it still comes up. Again, I agree with the other poster. Talk to the 400 group. They may not be able to help with sql statements, but they can surely give you library, file and field names. You could even ask them to print out the DDS for the files you're using. The print out may not make too much sense, but it will have field names, sizes, etc (which you could also get through sql metadata). Also, if they have it installed, the AS/400 has a pretty good interactive SQL builder. You may want to ask them to let you sign on and try it out via the command: strsql It has "prompting" for files, fields, etc. Steaven

Hi, I work with 400s day in and day out. I love them. I hate them. Like the other poster said, the AS400 is a rock solid, very nice machine; on the 400 that is. From the PC side, things get difficult real quick. I feel your pain :) As for accessing data on the 400, I would suggest IBM's OLEDB driver (supplied with Client Access) and using ADO for the data manipulations. I've had relative success with this. The Toolkit/SDK provided by IBM along with Client Access allows you to do some neat things, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough to try direct DB access with it... As for the cryptic names, the thing to remember is that all names (libraries, files, columns, etc) are limited to 10 characters. If this an older system which happened to use old RPG, then you will most likely find everything limited to 6 characters as that was all the old style RPG could handle. Most 400 shops use naming conventions to alleviate the problem of short names. Talk to the 400 people and see if they have one, might make things a bit easier. Here's a link you might find useful: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/pubs/html/as400/v4r5/ic2924/index.htm?info/RZAIKOVERVIEW.HTM It's the ISeries information page. It has some pretty good info. Steaven :)