If no file extension is included, it APPEND FROM (and COPY TO fyi) defaults to certain extensions based on the type (SDF-->TXT, e.g.)
Are you sure that the variable doesn't contain the actual extension when it works?
Don't know how you're populating the file variable, but if you use GETFILE() you'll get the full path, with extension. In that case, it should always work fine.

>Hi,
>
>In my application users import a large ascii text files into the app. The app then slices and dices appropriately.
>
>I am using the command:
>
>APPEND FROM (gcImportZATM004) TYPE SDF
>
>where the value of gcImportZATM004 is "F:\ASTRA\FILES\ZATM004-13DEC"
>
>I get error # 1 and the message is:
>
>"File 'f:\astra\files\zatm004-13dec.txt' does not exist."
>
>Strange that although gcImportZATM004 did not have ".txt" included, the app was trying to import a file with a .txt extension - and when it couldn't find it - I of course got the error message.
>
>The app has been in daily use for a few months by a number of our credit unions - this is the first instance of this problem. The filenames normally used for importing are more like: "Assiniboine-90_ZATM004._19OCT2000" - these files work OK even though they don't have the .txt extension. Any idea as to why the app is trying to open "zatm004-13dec.txt" - when I want it to open "zatm004-13dec"?