While I agree that the rush of doing something that "can't be done" is what a programmer/dba lives for, I agree with jwiner. Crystal Reports Release 9 has a great deal of functionality that would have greatly simplified the process. You also have to consider that in today’s world, you probably will not support that report or its components forever. When someone comes behind you with less experience, you will have increased their learning curve exponentially. Not only would they have to be a SQL guru to figure out how the code was used to accomplish the goal, but they would also need to be a guru on how you think. On second thought, isn’t that job security.