Given a positive integer

and a prime power

with

, it is proved that the largest value of

for which there exists an
![[n,k,n-k+l]](/images/tex/5712.gif)
maximum distance separable (MDS) code over GF

is

. A simple proof for the largest value of

for which there exists an
![[n,2,n-1]](/images/tex/5713.gif)
MDS code over any finite field is also given.