>Hilmar:
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>"Necessity" the mother of invention. I took a different approach and used ASC() to convert a string to a number that I could then manipulate with BITCLEAR(), BITSET() and so forth. I then used CHR() to convert back to a string. Before I had been using CTOBIN() and BINTOC() to do the conversions. The problem with VFP8 and below is that BINTOC() sets the sign which corrupts the bit map I was building. VFP9 has the "S" parameter to prevent this. How-some-ever, I ran into some compatibility problems with VFP9 (that's another story) and had to rule that path out. Using ASC() and CHR() are a little awkward because I have to work with 8 bits at a time and the bit maps are usually 64 or 128 bits. Not a big deal really. Once I finish coding the functions I probably won't see them again for three or four years.
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>None the less, I needed to do this post because I was staring at a blank wall.
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>Thanks,
>
>Scott

Indeed, your approach seems more appropriate, since VFP will do most of the work (I think), and you only need to change individual bits.

I see that the bit functions work with 32 bits at a time, so for longer bit-strings, I assume you have to piece them together.