>>>
>>>If your going to copy to a different file type, you just as well COPY TO...TYPE XL5.
>>
>>One big difference - VFP can natively manipulate the Fox 2 style DBF with the same set of commands after it's been copied to the new file format, not the case if it's in anExcel format.
>
>True, but if all he needs to do is open the file in Excel, it makes more sense, IMO, to copy it to TYPE XL5.

Key difference in how we read things from the original post:

>>>(I need to read the dbf, I do not want to copy to....xl5

Which I took to mean from inside VFP.