>#DEFINE SHORT_STRING "AAAAA" > >lcshort = "AAAAA" >lnstart = SECONDS() >FOR lni = 1 TO 100000 > lcfoo = SHORT_STRING >NEXT >lnstop = SECONDS() >? lnstop - lnstart >lnstart = SECONDS() >FOR lni = 1 TO 100000 > lcfoo = lcshort >NEXT >lnstop = SECONDS() >? lnstop - lnstart >lnstart = SECONDS() >FOR lni = 1 TO 100000 > lcfoo = "AAAAA" >NEXT >lnstop = SECONDS() >? lnstop - lnstartYou didn't peek down here, did you?< bg > OK, here's what I'll bet you saw: Each time you ran it, the first loop was fastest, the next fastest was the last, and the slowest was the second loop. However, if you replace the defined constant with REPLICATE("A", 5), the first instance will drop to the slowest because it's being re-evaluated on each pass.