>Thanks for the help. Highly valuable, as usual. Also, as usual, your explanation leads me to more questions. In the following code snippet I'm curious as to how the NOT of the 1st case you test for could ever occur...namely displayvalue = value but what they typed IS NOT in the list.

IF This.DisplayValue == This.Value && They typed something that is in the list
   RETURN
ENDIF

The displayvalue will not be equal to the value if the user typed in something that is not in the list. The value will only contain vlaues that are in the list, displayvalue contains wht the combo shows as the typed entry. DisplayValue equals Value only when the user selected something from the list or typed an exact match to an item in the list.