>>I have a large character variable (400,000 bytes), the result of a FILETOSTR() operation. I want to INSERT this value into a SQL Server varbinary(MAX) column.
>>
>>This doesn't work:

>>lcFile = FILETOSTR( {some file} )
>>
>>lcSQL = "INSERT INTO dbo.SomeTable ( VarBinCol ) VALUES ( ?m.lcFile )"
>>
>>=SQLEXEC( MyHandle, m.lcSQL )
>>
>>* ODBC error:
>>* Error Message: [Connectivity error: [Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 11.0][SQL Server]Operand type clash: text is incompatible with varbinary(max)]
>>

>>I can do this with a remote view but I've already coded the routine using SPT. If there's some magic trick to make this work using SPT I'd prefer to use that.
>
>You have to cast the data on the VFP side before passing the parameter to the ODBC driver.
>
>

>m.FileContents = CAST(FILETOSTR(GETFILE()) AS Blob)
>
>? SQLEXEC(m.MyHandle, "INSERT INTO dbo.SomeTable (VarBinCol) VALUES (?m.FileContents)")
>

>
>Update: Basically, this is what Naomi said this in her post (sorry, Naomi). An additional note: to fetch back the data properly, "MapBinary" cursor property should be set to .T.

Thanks - I haven't tested your code, it may work. In the interim I found CREATEBINARY() does the job:

lcFile = CREATEBINARY( FILETOSTR( {some file} ) )
* then the rest of my original code works as expected

Your point about MapBinary is well taken. It is not necessary when INSERTing the data as above using CREATEBINARY( ). The app that reads these embedded files does have MapBinary set .T. and it reads these embedded files as expected.