A study was undertaken to determine the relative ease of formation and stability of straight-chain primary and secondary alkanols capable of forming urea inclusion compounds. The compounds studied were 1-pentanol, 1-hexanol, 2-hexanol, 3-hexanol, 1-heptanol, 1-octanol, 3-octanol, 4-octanol, 1-nonanol, 4-nonanol, 5-nonanol, 1-decanol, 1-undecanol, and 1-dodecanol. 1-Heptanol was the shortest alcohol that formed an inclusion compound by the procedure employed. The ease of formation of a straight-chain alcohol was proportional to the number of uninterrupted methylene groups (—CH2—) present. The ease of urea inclusion compound formation generally decreases as the functional group approaches the center of the chain. These conclusions were based on X-ray powder diffraction measurements and the weight of recovered products under equilibrium conditions.