Thanks Naomi - the solution I am using appears adequate for the file size I am working with.

>Did you try fput solution too ?
>
>Also, remove lcLine at all from your strtofile test (write directly without lcLine variable).
>
>>Sergey, I have done some tests. Your suggestion is much slower (17.2 sec) compared to building a string (0.75 sec) or using TEXTMERGE (0.8 sec). It would seem that for the file size I am using that building the string is a good option.
>>
>>UPDATE: I am using 10,000 records and combining 3 fields.
>>
>>
>>>It has been proven that writing to a file line by line could be faster than building string in a memory.
>>>I would try
>>>

>>>lcFileName = "..."
>>>ERASE(lcFileName) 
>>>SCAN 
>>>
>>>lcLine = myTable.Field1 + CHR(9) + myTable.Field2 + CHR(9) + CHR(13)
>>>
>>>STRTOFILE(lcLine , lcFileName, .T.)
>>>
>>>ENDSCAN
>>>cMyString = FILETOSTR(lcFileName)
>>>

>>>
>>>>I need to add extra formatting text between fields and dependent on field contents. So simple COPY will not work. Do you think using SET TEXTMERGE TO VARIABLE will be faster?
>>>>