Jim,

>>>> Another observation, which I found in Help file: EMPTY() is not an optimizable function. So, instead of EMPTY() now I use ''<> myfield.
>
>Nadya,
>
>A safer alternative would be;
>
> MyField <> SPACE(LEN(MyField))
>
>because with SET EXACT OFF and SET ANSI OFF '' equals everything.

I've just checked. My statement works fine.

set ansi off
set exact off
dd='Nadya'
? (''=dd)
? (dd='')
? ''<>dd
dd=''
? ''<>dd