true. the single case comparison is slightly slower and if you can build a decision tree neraly balanced you get a nice reduction of comparisons - but even a few million case instead of if/else with only 3 decision points will not take too long even in laaaarge scans hitting nearly every record. As nothing was said about data localization, (vfp + XP network), lots of other thngs might become relevant if applicable: opening the tables exclusively speeds things up as well or locking the table - you know those weird corners also but I won't try to discuss those implications ;-)

>I believe IF /ELSE will be faster than CASE.
>