thanks very much...the execution plan is what informed me about where the query was so costly, but i was surprised to find that all the alternatives boiled down to 96% spent on Sort, (divided sometimes in different branches depending on where i put which operator(s)) but Sort was always the elephant in the room!

that was a great diagram, i learned that ages ago but never saw it so cleanly diagrammed, so thanks a lot for pointing it out.

drew