Right. And speaking of Help, you find the very latest version at http://vfpx.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=VFP%209%20SP2%20Help%20File&referringTitle=Home. Quite a few errors have been fixed, so it's well worth downloading it.

>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