>try
>
>

>SELECT 	padr(IIF(EMPTY(incep_date), "", DTOC(incep_date)), 10)  AS incep_date, ;
>	padr(IIF(EMPTY(anniv_date), "", DTOC(anniv_date)) , 10) AS anniv_date, ;
>	padr(IIF(EMPTY(term_date), "", DTOC(term_date)), 10)  AS term_date ;
>FROM myTable ;
>INTO CURSOR myCursor
>>

Oops and I was bitten by that problem just recently!

Of course, you're right, VFP determines the length of the column based on the first column value. Another solution will be to use

cast(... as C(10))