Peter,
VFP is weakly typed, meaning you don't need to do anything.
MyVariable = Anything
You may use a naming convention, or use a name that indicates the type.
The only declaring is LOCAL, PRIVATE, PUBLIC, and most prefer LOCAL. Arrays are DECLARED, but that's about it.
LOCAL MyDate
DECLARE aBunch[2,2]
Charlie

>I need to set up some variables and I need to ensure they are datatyped correctly for field types. How do I declare a local variable....
> TEXT
> INTEGER
> NUMERIC
> CURRENCY
> DATE
>
>
>Thanks