Silvio,

Thanks for the tip. This is very clever, and will work best for me since I have been given a list of valid characters to deal with. Thanks to everyone for the great tips!

Marcus.

>Marcus, try
>
>*function ValidStr
>lparameters str2check
>local validchars,testchars
>validchars = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789 "
>testchars = space(len(validchars))
>return len(alltrim(chrtran(str2check,validchars,testchars))) = 0
>
>Using validchars as above ValidStr("Silvio") will return .F. while ValidStr(upper("Silvio")) will return .T:
>
>Just adjust validchars to your needs
>
>HTH
>
>Silvio
>
>>I need to check names and addresses for invalid characters. What do you guys think is the best command/function to use for this. Thanks for your help.
>>Marcus.