>>Dimitry,
>>
>>Run the code from message#01684073. Watch your screen. Your REPLICATE(' ',10-LEN(ALLTRIM(REFERENCE))) is like REPLICATE(' ',10-LEN(REFERENCE)) for the determination of field length. This internally runs BEFORE filling the fields.
>>
>>To make at as clear as possible how SELECT SQL works
>>1. It does a blind run to figure out field types and length. This run is not visible and gives no record in return. This run ignores ALLTRIM() So SELECT REPLICATE(' ',10-LEN(ALLTRIM(REFERENCE))) AS cField FROM .. is executed like SELECT REPLICATE(' ',10-LEN(REFERENCE)) AS cField FROM .. 10-LEN(REFERENCE) is like 10-15; equals -5
>>2. It runs to fill the result records, here the ALLTRIM() will be respected.
>>So your code errors out on point 1.
>>
>>IOW. It does not matter how many signs you have in any record in the field REFERENCE. As long as the field length itself is greater then 10, your code must fail.
>>
>>Just an other example
>>

>>CREA CURSOR mycur (i1 I, c1 c(10))
>>INSERT INTO mycur VALUES (0,'')
>>INSERT INTO mycur VALUES (0,'c')
>>INSERT INTO mycur VALUES (0,'cc')
>>SELE ALLTRIM(c1) AS c1 FROM mycur INTO CURSOR cmycur
>>?LEN(cmycur.c1)
>>

>>
>>Why do you think cmycur.c1 has length 10? Because of the blind run.
>
>Lutz,
>
>Your point about SQL Select doing a "blind" run before actually getting the data explains why I am having a problem with this case. Thank you very much for illustrating how it works.
>To resolve the issue, for now, I changed the length of the field back to 10.
>Again, thank you for your help!

You are welcome.