Yes. All Vortex does if you specify ROW is to not keep a copy of the data after each row is fetched. This is the normal way of using the API. To use MAX you would simply stop fetching rows after you have fetched the number you want. You can use the n_flushtx2() call to do a skip. You can see an example at: http://www.thunderstone.com/site/texisman/node373.html