>James,
>(not intending any squabble - .2 cents addition:)
>In a previous reply I saw fread() to count lines.
>Real problem with fread() it should be done byte by byte. The code I saw would error on first call to fread. fgets() could be used but it has a bug (cannot handle lines > 8192chars - maybe fixed in SP4?) OTOH for huge files (>1 billion lines < bg >) lowlevel sounds to be the only way (for >2Gb files I don't have an idea what OS response would be).
>IMHO Barbara's original reply is the best with a slight modification (so it's faster than array approach too):
>
>

create cursor dummy (f1 l) && Smallest possible to speed up
>append from (lcFile) type sdf
>nLines = reccount()
>use in 'dummy'

>Best regards
>Cetin

Hi Cetin,

I have a 382MB file. Dummy approach took 303.768 sec. Fgets approach took forever. I was not patient enough to wait, so I kill VFP. Right now I decide to repeat this test, this case with fgets(lnHandle,1). Seems to hang up also...

Therefore your and David's approach is the fastest.