Hi,
When I run this:

TABLE FILE DATA2
PRINT PAT_ID HSP_PAT_ENC REALBEG
COMPUTE LASTBEG/HYYMDS = IF HSP_PAT_ENC EQ LAST HSP_PAT_ENC THEN LAST REALBEG ELSE REALBEG ;
BY HSP_PAT_ENC
BY HIGHEST REALBEG
ON TABLE HOLD AS DATA3
END

I get the following. REALBEG is in HYYMDS format.

0 ERROR AT OR NEAR LINE 156 IN PROCEDURE ADHOCRQ FOCEXEC *
(FOC36346) INCORRECT USE OF DATE-TIME FIELD OR CONSTANT
(FOC009) INCOMPLETE REQUEST STATEMENT
BYPASSING TO END OF COMMAND

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kerry,

I tried to duplicate your request using MSSQL, but was not successful.
What DBMS do you use?
In MSSQL the HYYMDS data format is unsupported and doing it in a define did not give me the error message.

Can you post the master for DATA2 ?

Is it something to do with the LAST ?

Is it something to do with the data ?

Perhaps you could try simplyfing the COMPUTE. Try setting LASTBEG initially, then start adding the code back to see what make the code fail.