Christian,

The others have shown you how to get what you want, let me explain why you are getting what you are.


ALLTRIM(Field) = ALLTRIM(Value)

The alltrims remove all spaces from a value, so if the field is empty it becomes equal to ''. In strong comparison, VFP matches on partials by stopping the comparison as soon as one of the values is exhausted, so with '' on one side (the field is empty) there is a match for any value on the other side.

As an example;

lcVar1 = "Smith"
lcVar2 = "Smi"
lcVar3 = ""
? lcVar1 = lcVar2 && T they are "equal"
? lcVar1 = lcVar3 && T they are "equal"
lcVar4 = "This is a test of a ery long string with alot of stuff in it"
? lcVar4 = lcVar4 && T they are "equal"