>Just for general discussion:
>
>Is there any reason that someone would not SET EXACT ON for the application default?
>
>I can think of specific instances where you just want to match the first X number of characters, but not as a default.
>
>I guess if you get in the habit of doing the ==, it might make sense...
>
>Joe

Joe,

Yes, I use SET EXACT OFF as default and so does VFP. Partial string matching is a very powerfull feature when dealing with databases.

This is simply an issue of learning how strings are compared and then dealing with it.

BTW, SET EXACT ON does NOT provide exact string matching, for example;

SET EXACT ON
lcVar1 = "Smith"
lcVar2 = "Smith     "
? lcVar1 = lcVar2  && Answer, True they match
? lcVar1 == lcVar2 && Answer, False they do not match