Thanks to everyone that helped with this.

Michelle


>Michelle,
>
>You forgot "IN 0" or another work area. VFP is trying to open the
>DBF in the same work area, so it's closing the table in the current work
>area, erasing the tmp file, then trying to open it back up.
>
>USE DBF() ALIAS testcur AGAIN IN 0
>will fix it.
>
>-Ed
>
>>I have this code:
>>
>>

>>   SELECT DISTINCT a_arcust.custno, company, city, state, exchange,
>>                   SPACE(80) AS list ;
>>      FROM a_arcust ;
>>      INTO CURSOR c_temp ;
>>      WHERE EMPTY(lc_cust) OR (a_arcust.custno = ALLT(lc_cust))  ;
>>      ORDER BY company
>>
>>   SELECT c_temp
>>
>>   USE DBF() ALIAS testcur AGAIN
>>

>>
>>I get an error on the last line saying the file doesn't exist. So I put a SUSPEND right before it. This is what I get from the debugger:
>>
>>ALIAS() = "c_temp"
>>DBF() = "C:\windows\temp\14266384.tmp"
>>FILE(DBF()) = .F.
>>
>>Sure enough, that temp file doesn't exist anywhere on my hard drive. Why not? I'm not closing the cursor. I know I've used this trick before to make cursors writable and I never had a problem. I tried adding NOFILTER but that didn't make a difference.
>>
>>I'm completely baffled. Anyone have a clue?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Michelle