>>UPDATE. In the debugger the value in the property PRE_FILTER is .F. So, basically, when using =cTest, VFP evaluates. But this is not what I wanted.
>
>Dmitry, are you defining the class in a Visual Class Library (*.vcx) or in a Program File (*.prg)?
>
>This is the effect you want, right?
>
>

>PUBLIC cTest AS String
>
>m.cTest = "IN_SERVICE = 'Y'"
>
>LOCAL DLI AS DL
>
>m.DLI = CREATEOBJECT("DL")
>
>? m.DLI.PRE_FILTER     && prints IN_SERVICE = 'Y'
>
>DEFINE CLASS DL AS Custom
>
>	PRE_FILTER = m.cTest
>
>ENDDEFINE
>

Are you sure the changes of the value of cTest would be propagated to the property? If it's assigned like this, the assignment happens only when the object is instantiated. Even creating a new object still contains the value as it was for the first instantiated object.

PUBLIC cTest AS String

m.cTest = "IN_SERVICE = 'Y'"

LOCAL DLI AS DL

m.DLI = CREATEOBJECT("DL")

? m.DLI.PRE_FILTER     && prints IN_SERVICE = 'Y'

m.cTest="out of service"

m.DL2 = CREATEOBJECT("DL")

? m.DL2.PRE_FILTER     && still prints  IN_SERVICE = 'Y'


DEFINE CLASS DL AS Custom

	PRE_FILTER = m.cTest

ENDDEFINE