actually mike that is what I want it to do. there will only be one occurrence of the object i am looking for.
k

>>When i scan for a match and GET a match, i exit and assume the program should break out of the loop.
>>what happens here however is that the program continues AFTER the endscan even if i place a RETURN
>>
>>so the only way i have found to determine if the scan was successful is to place a count in the search.
>>
>>i must be missing something. Can anyone tell me how to break out of the scan and return to the program that called the lookup procedure without the messy count.
>>
>>what i want is if the scan is successful in find one match to break out and not go beyond endscan. the only time endscan should be reached is if the scan was not successful in finding a match.
>>
>>tnx
>>k
>>
>>

>>procedure lookup
>>cc=0
>>scan for sct = TL  
>>wait window tl+ " found '
>>cc=cc+1
>>exit
>>RETURN	
>>endscan
>>		if cc = 0
>>		WAIT WINDOW TL+' NOT FOUND '
>>		endif
>>

>
>Why wouldn't it continue after the endscan? The EXIT command breaks out of the scan loop, and then execution continues from there. That's the way the SCAN command works.
>
>You definitely don't want the RETURN command there. That will break out of the entire procedure the first time through.