USE Customer && Has field named Company Company = "ACME" && Refers to memvar because fields don't work with = IF Company = "ACME" && refers to teh field because Fox always uses a field && over a memvar IF m.Company = "ACME" && Refers to teh memvar because the m. alias name && means memvarm. is not a historical issue, it is equally needed today as it ever was whenever there is ambiguity between a memvar and a field. There cna be a good argument made for the use of m. all the time to allow for unexpected changes in table structure later that might cause an ambiguity that isn't there today.