>>>I just tested this a few times and switched the order around. It appears you are correct. While the time changes depending on whether it is first, 2nd, 3rd, etc in the order (OCCURS() versus $ etc), $ does seem to be consistently the fastest.
>>
>>In Boris tests OCCURS() was the winner over $.
>
>:-)
>No way!
>

>? [$], SECONDS()-m1                   && 0.045
>? [OCCURS], SECONDS()-m1       && 0.284
>

>
>I even did this:
>

>CLEAR
>CREATE CURSOR crsTest (MyMemo M)
>APPEND BLANK
>REPLACE MyMemo WITH REPLICATE([A],16000000)+[ My String]
>DIMENSION atests[5]
>atests[1] = [aaa = AT("My String", MyMemo)]
>atests[2] = [aaa = RAT("My String", MyMemo)]
>atests[3] = [aaa = "My String" $ MyMemo]
>atests[4] = [aaa = OCCURS("My String", MyMemo)]
>atests[5] = [SELECT * FROM crsTest WHERE MyMemo LIKE "%My String%" INTO CURSOR aaa]
>RAND(-1)
>CREATE CURSOR Passed (Num I)
>INDEX ON Num TAG Passed
>SELECT crsTest
>DO WHILE .t.
>   lnRandom = INT(RAND()*10000000 % 5 + 1)
>   IF NOT SEEK(lnRandom,[Passed])
>      DoTest(lnRandom)
>      INSERT INTO Passed VALUES (lnRandom)
>      IF RECCOUNT([Passed]) > 4
>         EXIT
>      ENDIF
>   ENDIF
>ENDDO
>
>FUNCTION DoTest(lnNumber)
>    lcTest = atests[lnNumber]
>    m1  = SECONDS()
>    &lcTest
>    ? lcTest, SECONDS()-m1
>RETURN
>

>When I start it several times the [$] almost always has the same value 0.045-0.046, the rest vary from 0.045 to 0.980.

For this particular test in my system RAT is winning.