>>
>> You might be advanced enough not to be trapped with it but it's not
>> optional for robust code (+faster with loops).
>>
>
>Well with the "m" loops take significantly longer - at least the coding <bg>
>
>no, honest? Is there truely an advantage of Using "M." on normal variables? I remember this from my old DBASE and ARAGO-Times where we used it a lot. And I only use it with Field vars when using SCATTER MEMVAR

Frank,
Pardon me for jumping in, but check Calvin Hsia's BLOG http://blogs.msdn.com/calvin_hsia/archive/2004/12/14/301282.aspx

This is from there:
"If the NTI is not a field (like “y” below), the linear search occurs through to the end of the field list to determine that it’s not a field, so performance is slow. An easy way to speed it up (and a way to make code easier to read, easier to maintain, and faster) is to prefix the variable name with “m.” which specifies that the name is *not* a field name, but a variable. This boosts performance, even if there is a table with many fields open."