Sergey,

I've tried

CREATE CURSOR curTest1 (char1 C(3))
INSERT INTO curTest1 VALUES ('1')
INSERT INTO curTest1 VALUES ('2')
INSERT INTO curTest1 VALUES ('3')

CREATE CURSOR curTest2 (char2 C(5))
INSERT INTO curTest2 VALUES ('1')
INSERT INTO curTest2 VALUES ('2')
INSERT INTO curTest2 VALUES ('3')

SELECT * from curTest1 INNER JOIN curTest2 ON curTest1.char1 == curTest2.char2

=MESSAGEBOX(_tally)

SELECT * from curTest2 INNER JOIN curTest1 ON curTest2.char2 == curTest1.char1
=MESSAGEBOX(_tally)

that proved that I was indeed wrong as usual when I talk before testing or thinking. Tracy, you don't need alltrim, my mistake.

Thanks a lot for your reply. Appreciated as always.

>Wrong. The shorter one will be padded to the 7 characters before comparison.
>