>>To make sure your new character field is long enough, type the following in the command window:
>>
>>SELECT MAX(LEN(ALLTRIM(MyMemoField))) AS length FROM MyTable
>>
>>This will give you the length of the longest memo field data string in your table and you can create your character field to be at least that long.
>>
>>HTH
>
>And, in case you have any memos that are really too long (over 255 characters, maybe) you could SET MEMOWIDTH TO 255, check the value of MEMLINES(memofield) for each record, STORE MLINE(memofield,1) TO NewTextField, and
>FOR i = 2 TO MEMLINES(memofield)
>STORE MLINE(memofield,i) TO SomeWhereElseUntilYouFigureOutWhatToDoWithIt(i)
>ENDFOR

thanks Bret for the code...thanks again..rob