MIN (240,max(count(sections))*tnLength)

but you are right, 240 is good enough and possibly it is faster to have the long index then to calc the len and min over and over

>>>> RETURN PADR(m.lcReturn,MIN(LEN(m.tcField),240))
>will be wrong if you have tnLength*lnSections larger than LEN(m.tcField)
>as user can input more dots, your code will misbehave in the long run.
>Just set it to 240....
>
>>thats the result I've come up with
>>
>>Thanks for your input
>>
>>

>>TEXT TO lcx NOSHOW
>>CDX
>>1
>>10
>>2
>>03
>>1.1
>>12.R
>>1.1.R
>>1201.1.RBX.250.R.1
>>1201.1.R.250.R.1
>>1201.1.RBX.1.R.1
>>1.R
>>1.R.1
>>A
>>B
>>AA
>>5.R
>>CDXB
>>CDX.R
>>ENDTEXT &&lcx
>>
>>STRTOFILE(lcx,'xyz.tmp')
>>
>>CREATE CURSOR curXYZ (cField c(40),cTag c(40))
>>APPEND BLANK &&just to add an empty record
>>APPEND FROM xyz.tmp DELIMITED WITH TAB
>>
>>DELETE FILE xyz.tmp
>>
>>*get max section length
>>lnLen = 1
>>SELECT;
>> MAX(GetSectLen(Cur1.cField,@lnLen)) AS nLen;
>> FROM curXYZ AS Cur1;
>> INTO CURSOR curLen
>>USE
>>lnLen = lnLen+2 
>>
>>SELECT curXYZ
>>REPLACE ALL cTag WITH IP_ASCII(cField,lnLen)
>>
>>*create index
>>TEXT TO lcx NOSHOW TEXTMERGE  
>>INDEX ON IP_ASCII(cField,<<lnLen>>) TAG anIndex 
>>ENDTEXT &&lcx 
>>EXECSCRIPT(lcx)
>>
>>*there we are
>>BROWSE LAST NOWAIT
>>
>>FUNCTION IP_ASCII
>> LPARAMETERS;
>>  tcField,;
>>  tnLength
>>
>> LOCAL;
>>  lcReturn,;
>>  lcSection,;
>>  lnSections,;
>>  lnSection
>>
>> LOCAL ARRAY;
>>  laCols[1]
>>
>> lnSections = ALINES(laCols, UPPER(m.tcField),5,".")
>> lcReturn   = ""
>> FOR lnSection = 1 TO m.lnSections
>>  lcSection = laCols(m.lnSection)
>>  lcReturn  = m.lcReturn + IIF(ISDIGIT(m.lcSection),PADL(ALLTRIM(m.lcSection),m.tnLength,'0'),PADL(ALLTRIM(m.lcSection),m.tnLength,'@'))
>> NEXT
>>
>> RETURN PADR(m.lcReturn,MIN(LEN(m.tcField),240))
>>ENDFUNC &&IP_ASCII
>>
>>*determine max section length in SELECT SQL
>>FUNCTION GetSectLen
>> LPARAMETERS;
>>  tcField,;
>>  tnReturn
>>
>> LOCAL;
>>  lnSections,;
>>  lnSection
>>
>> LOCAL ARRAY;
>>  laCols[1]
>>
>> lnSections = ALINES(laCols, UPPER(m.tcField),5,".")
>> FOR lnSection = 1 TO m.lnSections
>>  tnReturn = MAX(m.tnReturn,LEN(laCols(m.lnSection)))
>> ENDFOR &&lnSection
>>
>> RETURN tnReturn
>>ENDFUNC &&GetSectLen
>>