Mark,

My results were virtually the same as Roi's. I'm running a PII 350 as well with 128 Mb and VFP 6.0 SP3. I wouldn't think, however, that it's the RAM, because what you're showing is considerably different. There should be some difference between the three results with the variable being fastest.

>Nope. Copied-and-pasted your code straight to a PRG. Damn, I need a faster machine and/or more RAM. :]
>
>>Mine on a Dual PII 350 with 256MB Ram, VFP 6 SP 3. I get about 30% (same as George).
>>Straight Code: 0.313
>>As Variable : 0.203
>>As Define : 0.313
>>
>>I'm surprised mine ran so much faster, or did you change the number of loops.
>>
>>>My results on a Dell 200mHz 64MB Ram, VFP 6 SP 3. Difference too small to matter?
>>>Straight Code: 23.785
>>>As Variable : 23.416
>>>As Define : 23.608
>>>