i just figured that one out actually greg when i changed the 4th letter to uppercase.
i had then tried isupper(subs(room1,4,1)) but i realize things were getting a bit messy.

undersood now why you used

lower(room1) <> room1

good solution. thanks
k

>Don't use IsUpper() since it only checks the first char
>
>

>? isUpper('rOOM') && False 
>

>
>>great thanks Greg.
>>k
>>
>>>>i have a field called room1 with about 100 records. the field should contain lower case characters and numbers.
>>>>i would like to run quick checks on all entries to make sure there are no upper case in the filed entries. is there a way to do this collectively without running through the whole file. i wrote this, which works, but i suspect there is a way to do this without going through the file piecemeal.
>>>>all i want is an alert, not an inventory.
>>>>
>>>>

>>>>use mytable
>>>>scan for room1 # " " 
>>>>if IsUpper(room1) = .t.
>>>>wait window "upper"
>>>>endif
>>>>endscan
>>>>

>>>>
>>>>thanks for any suggestions.
>>>>
>>>>k
>>>
>>>

>>>	local aa[1]
>>>	select count(*) ;
>>>		from mytable ;
>>>		into array aa ;
>>>		where lower(room1) <> room1
>>>	
>>>	if( !empty(aa[1]) )
>>>		? 'problem with', aa[1], ' records'
>>>	else
>>>		?'ok'
>>>	endif
>>>