Hah? How you're planning to skip over records with de_sysnum <> 13609 that matches SEEK? BTW, Boris code wouldn't work because of the same.
The best solution would be to create a proper index anyway.

>The file is hundreds of thousands of records and I'm trying to avoid using 'FOR' with SCAN...ENDSCAN because it creates a delay...
>
>Thanks,
>Tracy
>
>
>>

SET EXACT OFF
>>SEEK transform(13609,'99999999')
>>SCAN WHILE transform(de_sysnum,'99999999')+transform(de_histnum,'9999') = transform(13609,'99999999');
>>       FOR de_sysnum == 13609
>>   **** Do something
>>ENDSCAN
>>

>>>field de_sysnum n(8,0)
>>>field de_histnum n(4,0)
>>>
>>>EXACT is on
>>>NEAR is off
>>>
>>>Example records:
>>>
>>>de_sysnum de_histnum
>>>13609 1
>>>13609 2
>>>13609 4
>>>13609 3
>>>14102 1
>>>1360 1
>>>1360 9
>>>
>>>active index is:
>>>
>>>transform(de_sysnum,'99999999')+transform(de_histnum,'9999')
>>>
>>>want to move to the first record with a de_sysnum of numeric 13609 and then want to scan while...endscan through only those records that have a de_sysnum of 13609 and ANY de_histnum.