Hi Dragan

>Alter table... alter column ...{same as it was, just add the clause} NOCPTRANS

Oh, sorry, I was not thinking in terms of tables just memory variables, but yes I need to store the original string in a FPD table character (memo field if required).

Here is the modus oprandi. I have a FPD 2.5b table to maintain the clients individual details, one of them is this char(10) field which will contain the 80 bits value in character.

This and other fields will then be scattered into array and into a .mem file.

The VFP application will then read this .mem file (which has not changed over time) and assign the char(10) bit-wise code into variable/property along with the other array elements stored in it.

>A .mem file?

:) yes