Tracy
I finally had time to go through search routines sent from several responders and found that the third example you sent best suits my needs. I find the routine does generate an error however in the following code:

   loFiler.find(0) && Perform search
   if m.halt or lastkey()=27 && Escape was pressed
      exit
   endif

The error occurs on the EXIT command. It is not valid unless contained within a of repetition structure. Perhaps I am not seeing something in the code I should. My fix is below:

   if m.halt or lastkey()= 27 && Escape was pressed
      stopSrch = .T.   && added 6/3/06, next 2
      ***exit  && fails, not in loop
   endif

I then have code to check the value of stopSrch and respond accordingly

Once again, thanks