fantastic Naomi !! - that is even better than I was hoping for - saves a lot of data search I was preparing myself for.
Is there a direct way to convert this to text using filetostr() method or do I go cursortoxml() (which for me i think would be a two step process)

k

>>I want to create a text file that displays all email lists from 4 different dbf files. there are many duplications so I wanted to eliminate email duplicates from the other database files. I thought perhaps creating a cursor would be the way to go.
>>I have not used cursor in my programming and would like to give it a try if you thought it might be the way to go here. This attempt failed, Can someone please assist and send me on my way to part two. thanks so much
>>k
>>

>>CREATE CURSOR email ;
>> (email c(40))
>> 
>>Use mydbf1
>>go top
>>do while not eof()
>>m_email=rtrim(email)+';'
>>INSERT INTO email;
>>   VALUES m_email
>> skip
>> loop
>> enddo
>>BROWSE
>>

>
>So, try
>

>CREATE CURSOR email (email C(40))
>INSERT INTO Email (Email)
>select email from myDbf1 ;
>UNION ;
>SELECT email from myDBF2;
>UNION ;
>SELECT email from myDBF3;
>UNION ;
>SELECT email from myDBF4
>

>
>UNION eliminates duplicates so the resulting cursor will have all unique emails from your 4 DBFs.