<< Now I could do a search for the lowest file date, and then the lowest file time within that group of lowest file dates, and then the lowest filename within the lowest file time...but that means 3 searches each time I move a file from the scanned files folder to the destination folder. Not a bad solution, but I was trying to be efficient.
>> If you're trying to find the earliest file in the table using three fields, you could do: SELECT TOP 1 Filename FROM FileTable ORDER BY FileDate DESC, FileTime DESC, FileName DESC This will get you the earliest file. In general, anything you do sorted by one column you can also do sorted by three columns in the same command format. If you leave off the "TOP 1" you can cursor through the list in order of oldest to newest. Also, I'd consider storing the date and time in a single DATETIME field, which would bring your sorting down to two columns from three. Finally, depending on what's in the documents you're scanning, your scanner may be able to help you out in terms of naming the documents. I did a project once in which the incoming documents had bar codes on them. The scanner was able to read the bar code and use that as part of the file name, making it very easy to link the documents up with their original database entries. If your documents are reliably dated in a predictable place it's possible your can get scanning software that would create the document file names with the original document date, not the scanned document date. -- Larry
