>We don't go to vfp9 for a while, so can't use that, I thought about though.
>
>I need the action_not memo field to show up in the resulting cursor or table as a memo, in this case. If I run the select without the distinct keyword and now function around the field, no problem.
>but if I put the distinct and function around the field, I get the error, sting too long.
>
>the function can be either my UDF fixmemo, or the alltrim function.
>
The answer is simple then - don't use DISTINCT and don't use a function <g>

You may need to break it into two selects if you need distinct. Or you have to use some complex syntax to get around the problem. So, consider if two selects is an option.