>Nancy,
>
>This gets back to my original point (which by the way is becoming more and more insignificant to me :-)
>
>IF lcMyVar = fcModby
>won't work because VFP thinks fcModby is a variable if I don't use an alias.
>
>Don't knock yourself out on this one. I was just trying to find another way to be lazy and save a few keystrokes.

How about:

IF lcMyVar = EVAL(lcAlias-'.fcModBy')

>
>>Simplify
>>>lcAlias = ALIAS()
>>>IF lcMyVar = &lcAlias..'fcModBy'
>>to
>>

IF lcMyVar = fcModby

>>
>>BTW, you're probably already aware of making sure that strings are padded to the lenght of a field, or they're both trimmed. Depending on SET EXACT/ANSI, etc.