>>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))

Well, I was kind of surprised you didn't think of that