>I have a character field that in many records contains misc data that I don't want to touch.
>however there are records that are marked with * with data in between and closing *
>What I want to do is delete the * data * portion of the misc field
>
>To add to this task I only want to delete it is it contains the word H14
>so here is a sample
>
>misc: this data I don't want to touch *here is what I want to erase H14* however *this I want to remain A15*
>
>Is this even possible??

This is fox. It can be done at least three ways.

c=yourMemoField
lcChop="~~~"
I=0
do while not empty(lcChop)
   i=i+1
   lcChop=strextract(c, "*", "*",i,4)
   if at("H14", lcChop)>0
      c=strtran(c, lcchop, "")
   endif
enddo
replace yourMemoField with c