>>>I have never use varchar. Is it fair to say the primary difference between it and Character type is the absense of padding to the full field width? Does the byte cost vary with the actual contents of the field?
>>>Does varchar width establish the maxlength of the field contants?
>>
>>Varchar exists primarily for connecting to back-end databases that support the type. In a VFP table, the field length will still be fixed to the maximum; there's no saving in disk space. The only difference is that VFP handles the trimming automatically.
>>
>>Tamar
>
>Thanks Tamar
>That's about the way I figured it from reading the docs.
>Any thoughts on my original question?

It depends. Use character if most records will have data in the field, and you're sure you'll never need more than 254. Use memo if many records will have no data (or not much) or you don't know how large the field will be.

Tamar