>>>Never thought about that one. Maybe padr(alltrim(somefield), 40, " ") would keep the field at a reliable width of 40 or whatever number you select, thus avoiding the problem?
>>
>>Suppose that would work. Really the only thing I can think of that would require an ALLTRIM is the concatenation of two or more fields. Then the PADR solution would fit the bill.
>
>And in that particular case, you're probably better off concatenating with the - operator, which moves the trailing blanks of the first argument to the end of the concatenation.

Right. But the usual case for concatenation fom my experience is stuff like:

ALLTRIM(fname) + " " + mi + ". " + ALLTRIM(lname)

However, I have gotten out of the habit of doing this in the query, and just doing it in the report or whatever I am building the query or view for.