>>Hi George,
>>
>>>I think it may have to do with the way strings are compared for being greater or less than as opposed to numeric values. I could be wrong about this.
>>
>>Somehow I can't believe this... Comparing two integers is merely comparing to register. With strings you have to compare byte by byte. Even if VFP would use a register here, too, it still has to handle string in a different way than a simple integer, like locking the handle, converting the handle to a pointer, unlocking the handle, etc.
>>
>>Christof
>
>I think this is one of the cases where it goes for the special case of comparing four-byte strings, which did get stored directly into registers on some machines (Motorola or Vax or?). Maybe VFP's index engine does this all the time, who knows.

I concur. If I were writing the string compare algorithm, I would impliment it with the highest level of granularity that is practical.