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As newbie in VB programming, I would like to ask here if the DE is a better approach in data manipulation? In VFP, DE is far better than hardcoded. Any ideas would be appreciated.
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It depends most of all on what you feel comfortable with. The only time I use the DE, personally, is when I am working with ADO shape language (which is a bear to code from scratch for me -- my brain locks and freezes and screams at each APPEND).

By the way, I would make dispute your claim that the VFP DE is "far better" than a coded DE. Again, depends on your preferences. I like to code basic VFP data environments (or DE-like functions or objects) and re-use them. Reuse isn't a viable option with the VFP visual tool (all of this, of course, is an aside -- the important thing is, it depends).