Yes I tried both and they both work. I am not familiar with padr and it's missing from my vfp help. is it pad right?
Thanks Dragan for your solution.

k

>You're welcome. However, I suggest that you use the index key that Dragan suggested during my period of brain shortage. It's a little shorter, but should produce the same result.
>
>>Tore you never cease to amaze me. The logic would not have occurred to me. Works beautifully and sad to admit I have other applications that I can use that in as well. Thanks so much for this.
>>k
>>
>>>

index on left(chrtran(myfield,'/','') + ' ',25)

>>>Replace 25 with the actual length of your field.
>>>
>>>>I have painted myself in a corner with indexing problem.
>>>>I index a field called - myfield -- which contains an alphabetized list of names
>>>>aname
>>>>bname
>>>>cname
>>>>
>>>>Except in some of these entries there is a backslash at the start of the field
>>>>/aname
>>>>/bname
>>>>/cname
>>>>
>>>>when I index on myfield it groups the backslashes first followed by the unbackslashes
>>>>/aname
>>>>/bname
>>>>/cname
>>>>aname
>>>>bname
>>>>cname
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Is there a way to set up the index so the following progression occurs
>>>>/aname
>>>>aname
>>>>/bname
>>>>bname
>>>>/cname
>>>>cname
>>>>
>>>>index on substr(myfield,2,12) doesn't do it obviously. I need code set up to skip over a /
>>>>
>>>>I know some work arounds - like setting up a second field to handle the anomalies.
>>>>But would prefer a direct solution with a line of brilliant code. Or is this not possible.
>>>>
>>>>many tnx
>>>>k