> If you're at it. could you provide the full and working equivalent of the example rather than XML? And then please tell me which one is easier and has less dependencies on installed addons ?

>I'll have to look up the syntax - I'm about 99.9% sure there are multiple ways to do it in 1 or 2 lines of code, I've just usually used XML for tasks like that.

You already have proven my point kevin. The point was EASE of getting data in and out. You don't know from the top of your head and I don't think most people would know from the top of their head. There might be ways in SQL2005 to export to excell, but I don't know of any in SQL2000, or any other DBMS for that matter. In your example you are also relying on the ODBC text driver. A driver I had a lot of trouble with, esspecially on W98, NT4.0 and even more recently on W2K.

My example (4 lines, could be 3 if IMPORT is used) imports from one format, analyses and exports to another in three simple independed steps. No difficult steps in remembering the parameters for the ODBC driver. No dependencies on other installed stuff, just VFP. Just 3 simple commands. Any well seasoned VFP programmer could get this out of his sleave in no time. Your solution, well.......

Walter,