>Yeah, the cast does not seem to work - revert to the vfp6 tricks then

Oh CAST works perfectly - the only thing you migh CAST to General is a Blob -- or a General. Thats why I ask. But you are right a "help cursor" with a single field full joined . might work.

But this is cruel, to use a SELECT SQL and the SCAN to fill it...

Agnes

So maybe
>
>I have a table which is included in the app/exe
>
>It's called EmptyTable and has definitions for 'empty' fields. It has ONE record. I used that a lot in the vfp6 period
>
>It has eg an empty memo field (et_m), a nullable memo field (null_m)
>I could add a general field (eg et_g)
>
>Then
>

>create sql view hello as ;
>    select Table.*, ;
>                et_g as TheField ;
>   from Table, EmptyTable ;
>   where (........  ?.... .....) ;
>   order by ....
>