>Memo fields are best used for variable length "carry along" non-cirtical data for a record. As such it would be unlikely that memo fields would need to be indexed. If there is data in a memo field that needs to be indexed I suggest redesigning the table so the memo data that requires indexing is in descrete fields of a fixed length. If necessary an additional field to the memo could be used to store the part of the memo data that needs indexing.

I agree whole-heartedly. I've never even thought to put an index on a memo field. If I use them at all, it is for narrative comments. No one has ever asked to be able to search on them. If they had, I would have told them it was going to be slow, but here it is.

I guess I was just intrigued that since VFP doesn't allow memo fields to be the source of an index expression, it allowed it as the source of a function that was used as an index expression. Maybe I'm just asking too much.