Nick,

>>at least look semi-sane and extensible? (INLIST() can only have up to 24 values, it is not optimizable, but it's infinitely better than the original)

>Or:
>
>IIF(alltrim(t.transs) $ "~CS~DV~L~R~RC~RD~V~ST~OP~", 1, -1)
>this one is not limited to 24 values.
>
>(You may use IIF("~" + alltrim(t.transs) + "~" $... so it does not mix up R and RC and RD codes). You would not need alltrim() if all codes could be 2 char in length (along with the code field).

your solution is not optimizable, INLIST is (As opposed as Ed suggested), so INLIST would be prefferable.

Walter,