>>>>>
>>>>>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, ':'), '-=_', '...')

I understood that bit

I'm just not too keen on chrtran() anything after the second colon