>lcSQL = "SELECT Lv_rates_summary_schedc.audit_id, " + ;
> "Lv_rates_summary_schedc.total AS admin_total, " + ;
>etc
>
>I have NO idea why one would work and the other did not but you should
>give it a try. There must be some magic with the plus sign semicolon...

Thanks Tom... I seen too that the plus sign works to concatenate it. But I still says its weird. And it's not just storing a SELECT statement: type out the alphabet, copy then paste it 9 times so that you have 260 consecutive characters and try to store that to a variable and VFP chokes without concatenation.