BRILLIANT !!!!!!
many thanks dragan - works beautifully - it brings tears to my eyes.

k

>>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