Helen:

I just want to give a special "Thank you" for the time you spent with my problem. I will study it and attempt to implement it as I learn the necessary steps (stored procedures are totally new to me).

But just for future understanding the main application is primarily a desktop app only. There are very few doctors using the medical device on a network and even then a simple file sharing scheme would probably work (there is very little chance of file contention, because a patient can not be in two locations at the same time<s>).The number of records are miniscule at this time, too.

The particular utility I'm writing is for my use only, with the possibility of me sharing it with other doctors. If others want to use it and the main programmer and the medical device's company agree, then it may be added to the main program.

My little utility is just to allow some Patient file maintenance, which currently doesn't exist in any form in the system (for shame!). I'm trying to encourage the company to add such necessary features by offering these little utilities to other users.

> No: and it's not a good idea, either. This practice belongs to SQLServer, not to a proper client/server database! <g>

To be honest, Helen, the use of Interbase for this app is like using an elephant gun or a bazooka to shoot a rabbit. But it works and at this point the company will probably not change it.

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> If you *must* put the results of your selection into a table (why????) then create a table for it that has a session identifier of some sort.

The rest of your email is fantastic and will get my full attention (and probably more questions as I work on it!).

Why? Mainly because I wanted to know what patients the user selected from the CheckBoxList then use that info to move or delete all the necessary records. I didn't don't know how to use the CBL information in a Select statement.

I just looked over your use of Strings[] and see what you're getting at. Yes, it would eliminate the need for a temp table. Just got done tonight using the DSQL component and parameters--to insert the patients into the temp table-- (for the first time) so understand what you're driving at. Thanks again.

(The biggest problem I'm having with learning Delphi is the horribly poor references. There seems to be a total lack of such simple things as a language reference for all the functions, procedures and components/objects. I have a number of books, but find that I have to spend hours going through them to find things that they casually mention without any clear presentation organization at all. So, many properties/methods I just
stumble on. I don't even remember seeing anything like Strings[]. If you can refer me to a good Pascal/Delphi language reference book, I'd be very appreciative!)

> Creating a temp table is especially horrible: how would one user's application be able to tell whether another's was attempting to create the table?

I don't think it will be a problem in this particular utility instance, but if added to the main program and used on a network, I completely agree. I will tell you, I did not like the solution that I came up with and will definitely work to implement yours.

Thanks again!

Chuck Belanger