You're correct on the first part. But - a minus sign will not increase the length of an integer, it takes up one bit. Therefore, the value of a signed integer ranges from -2,147,483,647 to +2,147,483,647. The value you specified is for an unsigned integer (VFP doesn't have unsigned integers). The biggest unsigned integer would actually be one less than you said (you forgot the zero value).

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> this gives you the lenght ofthe CURRENT value of the field. Len(AllTrim(Str(256^4)))will give you 10 (the biggest Integer is 4,294,967,296 , half of that is for negatives.and you also need to account fot the minus sign,which makes it a length of 11.
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>Peter
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>>Hope this helps.