Hi George,
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>>I'm working with VFP native tables all the time, I haven't chance yet to work with SQL Server, for my regret :(
>>Our customers want predefined OutPut Format. It could be a table, or SDF file, or Printed Report, or Excell book, or whatever. I think, only for DBF it doesn't really matter the field order, but in other cases it's important. I have an Output template for another customer, now I want to modify this template for other customer. Here I have a problem of changing fields order in a table with ~80 fields. I had this problem before, but now I'm really thinking about writting a more flexible interface for modifying structure.
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>If the problem is the pre-defined format, why not drive the table into a cursor via a query? Whatever format you specify there will be the format of the the resulting cursor. Besides, customer needs often change. It's a lot simpler to modify a query, than it is a table. Further, you could give them the option to create their own format.

I think, I should explain, how it works for us. We have 2 independant applications (actually, even three): Query (BtCrit as a part of it) + XForm.
First application selects row data from our database using selection criteria, made in BtCrit (I worked on this application few months before). So, the user (or programer) specify their criteria for selection. The Select statement looks like SELECT * FROM PropMstr INNER JOIN SiteMstr ON .. etc (about 5-6 joins) WHERE ....

The second application performs actual formatting. It uses a query result as an InputTable and a predefined format as an OutTable. We already have several Output format templates (I created them). Now I want to add another format for another customer. And here my problem begins. Right now I'm changing the structure...
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>If I recall correctly, earlier in this thread you mentioned that you didn't like the VFP expression build. Why not "roll your own"?

In XForm we have a Splitter EditBox, which has build-in validation mechanism. This 'Expression Builder' was made by my colleague and works like a charm in this particular application. It could be probably expanded as independant Expression Builder.