Ravi

I think arrays are seldom a good choice. VFP's cursor is more powerful and VFP's collection of array functions could be bigger.

If all you want is a simple count of files...

*CountFiles.PRG
LPARAMETERS m.tcSkeleton
IF VARTYPE(m.tcSkeleton) # "C" ;
     OR EMPTY(m.tcSkeleton)
  *Invalid function, argument, type or count.
  ERROR 11
ENDIF

LOCAL ;
  m.lnCount, ;
  m.lcFile
m.lnCount = 0
*Get the first filename.
m.lcFile = SYS(2000,m.tcSkeleton)
*Continue until all files are processed.
DO WHILE NOT EMPTY(m.lcFile)
  m.lnCount = m.lnCount + 1
  *Get the next filename.
  m.lcFile = SYS(2000,m.tcSkeleton,1)
ENDDO

RETURN m.lnCount