Any read-only cursor can be converted to read-write one programmatically and subsequently its structure can be changed:
Select MyField From MyTable Into Cursor tmpReadonly NOFILTER
cDbf=dbf()
Select 0
Use (cDbf) AGAIN ALIAS tmpReadWrite
Use In tmpReadonly
Alter Table tmpReadWrite Add Column MyNewField C(10)

>Thanks guys for your replys,, for a moment I thought I saw a posting
>in wich you can actually do the Modi Struc for a View cursor,,
>but I think is different.
>What I wanted to do is,that usually I work with large tables for diff
>projects and certain fields (not all the fields) for example,
>name, address , city state zip dpb fields need to be formated in a specific
>format for BuscroEktajet machines for Bulk Mail processing and I tough
>if I created a cursor with the req fields and then add some temp ones
>then most of the formating routines will run wayyy faster in memory rather
>than I/O process in the original table.
>that's all, some of my tables are about 1.5M records and 500,00 recds
>
>thanks
>Mark
>
>>Hi Mark,
>>
>>>I think someone ask this before , but once you get your cursor
>>>after a " Select fields, into cursor Mycursorx', can I change
>>>that cursor (Mycursor) structure somehow, or it is Read-Only
>>>always...
>>
>>It is possible, but I wouldn't do it. With the SELECT statement you can create exactly the table you want. What kind of manipulation are you trying to do?
>>
>>Christof