>VFP backend:
>
>Why will the PADL() in this order by not work?
>
>SELECT * FROM table1 ORDER BY street, st_type, st_prefix, st_suffix, city, PADL(ALLTRIM(number),8,'0')

This isn't allowed in VFP, as far as I know. What I do when I need something like this is add the field with its expression to the SELECT field list and then ref in the order by. For example...

SELECT table1.*, ;
          PADL(ALLTRIM(number),8,'0') AS myOrderField ;
FROM table1 ;
ORDER BY street, st_type, st_prefix, st_suffix, city, myOrderField