>One part of my app cycles three forms. Form 1 calls Form 2 then releases itself, and so on. Some of the tables are used in the data environment of all three forms. The problem is when Form 1 calls form 2 then releases itself, it closes all the tables in its DE, including the ones that exist in Form's 2 DE. This causes problems when methods try to access the now closed tables .
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>Is this correct OOP behaviour, or is there a way for VFP to protect each form's DE (other than leaving all Form 1 tables open by disabling the auto close tables in Form 1 DE.)

If Form2 needs to work with tables opened by Form1, then it shouldn't open them itself. I wouldn´t include the Form1 tables in the Form2 DE. In fact, when I need to do these sort of things, I include no files whatsoever in the second form DE, and open files "by hand."

HTH!