>>but for the particular UC the fastest way is

>>Store (m.cAlias+".AirDate") to dAirDate1

>My favorite is

dAirDate1=evaluate(forceext(cAlias, "Airdate"))

Interesting idea, but my first gut reaction is "oops, wait a minute".
ForceExt() is slower - even compared to

(m.lcStem + "." + m.lcExt)

and eval is also slower - but that will not matter in most of the cases.
You gain safety for the cases the dot is already included in cAlias,
but run a risk if the really intended source is an object property named the same as the object.

lcObjname = "goApp.Here.I.Have.Structures.Airdate"
Store (m.lcObjname+".AirDate") to dAirDate1

Not the best way to build an object hierarchy, and the most UC will probably work of tables or better named objects.
So both differ only in seldom encountered "fringe cases". Still, from the ZEN of a similar language: "Explicit is better than Implicit".

So probably the "best way" is defined by readability for the author.

regards

thomas