>>The value contains the value of the bound column of the combo, it is always a character string.
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>I take this to mean that even if the value of the bound column is of numeric type, the value property contains the string of numerals that represent the number. This would imply that the following:

If you are using a numeric controlsource you must set eh BoundTo proepty to .T. or else the value returned by teh combo will be the index for the selected item and not its value. VFP does the data conversion for related to controlsources. However, combos and list may only contain character data internally.

>>This has nothing to do with user friendliness, it has to do with simplicity and control. Pessimistic buffering does magic stuff, optimistic buffering does.
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>Well, on purely simplistic grounds, "it's mine til I say you can have it" is pretty simplistic. Didn't know about the magic stuff that by its existence eliminates the simplicity. I'm sorry to hear that the automatic locking/unlocking mechanisms have unpredictable/poorly defined behavior, since I was looking to that to save me some development time.

The behavior fo pessimistic buffering is not porrly defined, but it is relatively complex. Your problem with the combo is most probably due to something moving a record pointer. This isn't the result of pessimistic, but from record rather than table buffering.

>>The incremental search of the combo works fine, if the combo is Dropdown List style. Using a dropdwon combo style VFP has the problem of figuring out if the user is typing a new value or searching for an existing value. I use a textbox in combination with a dropdwown list combo in my forms. The textbox is disabled unless the suer is adding a new record to the file. If the user clicks the add button I enable the textbox and disable the combo.
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>Well, since you write books on the subject, I'll do what you do. I'm trying to visualize what you are talking about. It sounds like you have an edit box in addition to a drop down list type combo box which means (with my naive understanding) that the singular edit box and the combo's edit box are both visible... that seems a little confusing. Is there a way to eliminate the combo's edit box from view?

I leave the combo and the textbox both visible, it is not confusing because when teh combo is enabled the textbox is disabled and when the textbox is enabled the combo is disabled. The user cannot navigate and edit at the same time. IOW, I am using the combo for navigation ONLY and not for editing.