>Do you have another way to convert from int to a 10 character blank padded string?

try this:

#include <time.h>
#include <strstrea.h>

extern "C" {

__declspec(dllexport) int test(int iterations);

}

__declspec(dllexport) int test(int iterations) {

	strstream sTest;

	sTest.width(10);	// set the width to 10
        // sTest.str() returns a pointer to the internal
        // char array and "freezes" the array.
        // sTest.rdbuf->freeze( 0 ) "unfreezes" the array.

	clock_t tStart = clock();

	for ( int i = 0; i < iterations; i++ ) {

		sTest << i;
	}

	return (int) (clock() - tStart);

}

called by:

#define ITERATIONS	10000

local cstr, lnow, i
cstr = ''

lnow = seconds()
for i = 1 to ITERATIONS
	cstr = cstr + str(i)
endfor 

? "Visual Foxpro Time: " + str((seconds() - lNow) * 1000)

declare Integer test in e:\test2\Release\test2.dll as test ;
	Integer Iterations

? "C++ Stream Time: " + str(test(ITERATIONS))

clear all

Compared to VFP 5.0a, the C++ takes aprox. half the time. See how VFP 6.0 fairs.

The C++ io stream classes are capable of doing easy formatting much more flexibly than the old C stdio functions.

This example could be faster if the max size of the string were set so dynamic memory allocation is not necessary.