>>>Thank you for your input. How do you know how VFP works "under the hood"?
>
>Some years back there was a prolonged m. debate. By the end, there had been detailed tests confirming that the number of fields in selected alias() definitely affects performance without m. on the right side of an = . Whereas performance difference on the left side of = is minor.

IIRC that was when Calvin switched the way field names were searched in a table/alias - I think vfp6 and vfp7.