lnX = 1 cString = "**D )df98 df7 HF*F*D3FHDHF&DFD3" FOR lnI = 1 to LEN(cString) lcLetter = SUBSTR(cString, lnX) IF ISALPHA(lcLetter) or ISDIGIT(lcLetter) or lcLetter = ' ' lnX = lnX + 1 ELSE cString = STUFF(cString, lnX, 1, '') ENDIF ENDFOR ?cStringThis gets saves only the digits, letters and spaces. EVerything else is thrown. You could modify it to keep all the symbols you want too, but it should filter out all the unidentified characters.