Jane, one addition to Paul's and Edward's messages: If you wish to make your cursor read/write so you can update it, you can USE a copy of it:

USE dbf('tempdata') in 0 alias WriteData

HTH
Barbara

>The cursor doesn't disappear - I get an error message saying it doesn't exist. (Maybe that means it disappears!.) I say
> SELECT fields FROM table INTO CURSOR tempdata WHERE ...
> (There should be records selected.)
>My next statement is then
> USE tempdata in 0
>That's where I get the error message.
>Before I moved the project, this form worked. Therefore I conclude the error message has to do with where it's looking for the CURSOR.