>>Tamar,
>>But I don't understand why would
>>
>>

?vartype("mytable.myfield")="U"

error. There is nothing to fail there.
>>It doesn't error for me and correctly displays .F. Do you all get error and not me?
>>Cetin
>
>That command is comparing the character string "mytable.myfield" to the character string "U". Unlike TYPE(), the VARTYPE() parameter is not quote delimited. You will get an error if you leave off the quote marks and reference an undefined field.

Not quite but I think you meant it is comparing the type of "mytable.myfield" expression (which is "C") to "U" but so what?
Why would

?vartype("mytable.myfield")="U"

error, I don't get. It wouldn't and it doesn't error here.

Cetin