>If the table is a dbf and not too big:

>lcData=Filetostr('timep.dbf')
>lnCount=Occurs('|',lcData)

>
>>I have 250 records in a database called timep.
>>Each record has 100 fields called p1,p2,p3 ..... p100
>>
>>Is there a global search i can do for a tally of the numbers of times the symbol "|" appears in the whole database - without having to count through each field of each record - ie without using scan or for-endfor. ie one or two lines of code.
>>
>>thanks for any suggestions
>>k


Maybe I'm wrong, but is this will accurate if the value "|" (0x7C or 124 decimal) appear in .DBF header?

I think this code below will prevent that case

lcData=FILETOSTR("timep.dbf")

*!* skip until first record
lnFirstRecordOffset = CTOBIN(SUBSTR(m.lcData, 9, 2), "2RS")

lnCount=OCCURS("|", SUBSTR(m.lcData, m.lnFirstRecordOffset + 1))