>One more thing: usually there is the need to use alltrim() when concatenating several fields.

I'm assuming you meant "there is no need."

>>Using the "-" (minus) operator to concatenate strings moves all the blanks to the end of the string without changing the total length. Usually this is enough instead of using alltrim on a whole expression.

For example, for a first and last name, you definitely don't want to use AllTrim():

JAMES TIM
JAMESON ALAN

If you AllTrim(), you end up with

JAMESTIM
JAMESONALAN

which won't give you the correct sort order (as we usually want it).