John, et al,

What about coming up with some kind of "mix" of mnemonic and value definition?

For example, MB_YESNO could perhaps become something like MB_YESNO_4...

Don't know how workable that would be but just a thought...

Best,

DD

>Ding ding ding! We have a winner......
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>This is exactly my reasoning. IMHO, it's just as hard for me to remember MB_YESNO as it is the number 4 too.
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>>I know and acknowledge all of the textbook reasons to use DEFINEs. Steve McConnel states that "magic numbers" are always a no-no. A magic number is any hardcoded numeric literal whose number is arbitrary. IOW, the only numbers you should have in your code are like 1 for a loop, or 2 for an array dimension. All others are bad. I agree.
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>>BUUUUUUUT. The practical issues involved with littering your code with constants make the practice unbearable, IMO. At least in VFP. VFP is extremely goofy with regard to the "scope" of an include file, and its behavior with constants in the debugger, and its sometimes mysterious tendency to forget where include files are. As a result of these PITAs, I almost never use defined constants.