Rich,
>it would appear that COPY TO ARRAY or SELECT INTO ARRAY would do the same thing much more cleanly
Oops, right you are. I got carried away thinking on loops and to change the FOR to SCAN and forgot these two better alternatives
"The five senses obstruct or deform the apprehension of reality."
Jorge L. Borges?
"Premature optimization is the root of all evil in programming."
Donald Knuth, repeating C. A. R. Hoare
"To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely"
Jorge L. Borges