>From a technical standpoint, how could calling an external function possibly be faster than using a function directly available to the form? Does anyone know how VFP compiles these two types of functions?

Michael,

The timing diffference is 0.000004 seconds and this is certainly explained by the sequence in whihc VFP checks for the code. If it checks for a procedure in a proc file first and then a prg second and the Mehtod last then 0.000004 seconds might just be how long it takes to find out the first two aren't there.

Keep in mind my test ran 10,000 interations of each and summed the total time required for all 10,000 calls so the 0.4 second difference is for 10,000 calls and that is 0.000004 seconds for each call.

JimB