>>>>I'm wanting to store a datetime as compactly as possible. When you create a datetime field in a table, it takes 8 bytes but if you do a TTOC(), it takes 20 characters. Is there a way of getting that 8 byte value from the DBF and easily convert it back and forth?
>>>
>>>I don't understand what you're asking. Storing as DateTime is the compact way.
>>>
>>>Tamar
>>
>>I should have been clearer - I need to store this as a text field in a lookup table holding all my settings. I was hoping to store it in a few characters without making up my own scheme.
>
>TTOC(DATETIME(),1)
>
>is the string format of a time to have it index~ and sortable.

Not bad - only 14 characters, easily converted to integer and sortable - Thanks!