Jason,

A memo field takes up 10 bytes per record in your .dbf. A non-empty memo field will also take up some amount of space in the .fpt file. A few things you should do:

1. Take a look at SET BLOCKSIZE. It determines what size blocks are used in memo files. Larger blocks give you better performance but take more disk space.

2. Memo files can have a lot of bloat. This happens because when you modify a memo field VFP just tacks the modified data on the end of the .fpt file and changes the pointer in the dbf to point to the appended data. The original data is still in the memo file. You should PACK all of your tables with memo fields before putting them on the CD.

3. You'll probably need to expiriment to determine which fields are good candidates for memo fields and which will do better as character. Since a memo always takes up at least 10 bytes, a field that only needs to hold 10 characters or fewer will always be more efficient as a character field. However, a longer field will often do better as a memo. However, this will only be true if the field is often blank or fills less than its entire length.

>ok.. we are very hard pressed for space on a database that has to fit onto a single cd. we have played with changing large char fields to memo fields and in some cases it saves space, other times it seems to make the database bigger. Does a memo field with say 10 char take up more space than say a char field with 10 char.. is there a rule of thumb as to how much space a memo field will take up (empty one)