>Gilles Schipper's solution of two sets will work, but as he points out,
>this is somewhat against common database design standards.  Because your

>
>My $.02.

Larry and others:

I seem to recall the technique I'm looking for did something like putting
the single character in front of an existing key for each record and used
that compound item as the key.  That helped out with the chain length at
the expense of having more data in the key than really necessary.  I'm not
sure how the retrieval worked although I can guess it involved a sequential
read of the automatic master looking at the first character of the data.

I am not keen on adding this field as a key because of the very
(excessively??) long chains and because I don't think this field makes
sense as a key.  It looks like I will have prepare to do battle with the
users who feel they just can not live without it.

Now, where did I put my suit of armor?? <GRIN>

BTW, I appreciate your $.02 and that of the other participants here.


------------------------------------------------------------------
John Pearce  <[log in to unmask]>       | Bethesda Management Company
Speaking for only myself             | Colorado Springs, CO  USA