>George,
>
>Mac Rubel's benchmarking has shown that integers are the fastest data type you can have. Since the PK is meaningless I just leave it at interger and get on with it.

Jim,

I think we're thinking of the same article from about 2 years ago. Something like, "Real Programmers Use Integers", wasn't it? Anyway, when I posted that's the one I was thinking of, and, for some reason, thought that he pointed out some benefits to using BINTOC(). I'll have to dig out (literally < g >) the issue at the office to check.

Personally, I wonder what the point of both BINTOC() and CTOBIN() would be if they weren't to be used in situations like this. Do you have any ideas?