A character field cannot be longer than 254 charaters. In VFP9 you could use CAST() to make result a memo but not in VFP8.

...
  PADR(ALLTRIM(contacttype) + " - " + TEXT,254) AS act_notes,
...

>I had a simalier problem back in 2006, but I can't seem to fix this one. I have a select string:
>

>SELECT TYPE, calldate AS act_time, lcPrblem AS problem_id, ;
>  "OLDFLTDB" AS user_id, lcclient AS client_id, ;
>  ALLTRIM(contacttype) + " - " + ;
>  TEXT AS act_notes, ;  <------- this is a memo field
>  "Number: " + ALLTRIM(STR(NUMBER)) ;
>  + "  ID: " + ALLTRIM(STR(ID)) AS nxtact_not, ;  <------- this is a memo field
>  TTOD(calldate) AS act_date ;
>  FROM ctempaction LEFT JOIN cactiontype ;
>  ON ctempaction.TYPE = cactiontype.contacttypeid ;
>  WHERE NUMBER = lnnumber ;
>  AND !EMPTY(TEXT) ;
>  INTO CURSOR csupaction READWRITE nofilter
>

>
>I am getting 'String is too long'. I have tried pading the text to be greater the 255 at all time. but that causes the error on all records.
>
>Any suggestions?
>
>TIA
>Beth