>Karen,
>
>clearly there is some misunderstanding here. The thing is that m is a reserved word, since you can use it to tell that what comes after it plus a dot is variable, even though a field may have the same name. Like if you have opened a table with a field called XX with a value of 5, and a variable called XX with a value of 10. Now you see the following:

>?5*XX && 25 since a field has precedence
>?5*m.XX && 50 since m. tells VFP to use the variable XX.

>Also note that m alone is not allowed as a variable name, and it's also not allowed as an alias. And a field named m would most likely be asking for real trouble,
>

>Also note that m alone is not allowed as a variable name
> And a field named m would most likely be asking for real trouble,


Says who ?