>>Peter,
>>
>>What about making _tally private?
>>
>>

>>clear
>>
>>local test1(1)
>>
>>create cursor test (id I autoinc)
>>append blank
>>append blank
>>append blank
>>append blank
>>
>>select * from test into array test1
>>
>>AnotherSelect()
>>
>>? Program(), _tally
>>
>>use in Select('test')
>>
>>function AnotherSelect
>>local test2(1)
>>private _tally
>>
>>select * from test where .f. into array test2
>>
>>? Program(), _tally
>>

>
>Great! Not the panacea for all pain, I guess, but this might become a new best-practices principle.
>
>Pity that it can't be declared as LOCAL.

I am not so sure PRIVATE _tally would work. One reason would be that vars declared as PRIVATE are visible/accesible/asignable by subsequently executing methods (timer.timer being one of them).