>>>>
>>>>Hi Karen:
>>>>
>>>>Another solution here :D
>>>>
>>>>Considering that there are always three "parts" separated by ":" symbol, this will do it in pure VFP:
>>>>
>>>>

>>>>mstr='1st-title: ANAME-HER : 3520931 place[21-22]'
>>>>? GETWORDNUM(mstr, 1, ':') + ':' + GETWORDNUM(mstr, 2, ':') + ':' + CHRTRAN(GETWORDNUM(mstr, 3, ':'), '-', '.')
>>>>

>>>
>>>
>>>Yes, but it turns out that the hyphen is not always a hyphen
>>
>>...and in that case you add all the symbols you want to replace in the 1st part. What is the problem? I don't see it
>
>I'm always careful. You may end up replacing too many chars

Just in the third part... like this:

+ CHRTRAN(GETWORDNUM(mstr, 3, ':'), '-=_', '...')