>Good idea! I implemented my solution thusly...
>
>All fields returned with afields... I change the name of the field to _fname001,_fname002,_fname003,... where fname is the name returned. the _ at the start solved the invalid fieldname and the 001... makes sure the field name is unique...
>
>Then I create a new table from the new afields and populate it via scanning through the table and scattering the fields to an array and then inserting the values into the new table.
>
>
>It works with fields no field name spreadsheets i.e. with no first row, with field names starting with an invalid character, and with spreadsheets with valid field names as well.
>
>Thank you Ian,
>Mike
>

You're welcome.