Dear Graeme, Adam, all,

> This may not be relevant to the discussion, because I'm not sure whether
> your question is a semantic one or whether you are looking for a practical
> solution.

actually I was hoping for both aspects (and have received both kinds of
answers - thank you).

> Using Delphi and either IBX or FIBPlus and the associated script components
> TIBScript or TpFIBScript, it is possible to create and populate a table
> within one script file.

Thank you, it's good to know this. However, I've built my entire
application on Zeos components, and it would not be practical to change
that.

Stefan