>>>I am updating a series of PRG's to optimize them for speed and to get them ready to convert into classes.
>
>>FWIW, to make the statement fully optimzable, go back to the space(10) option and change the $ code to:

>>NOT (Cdm.new_cpt = "Q" OR Cdm.new_cpt = "H" OR Cdm.new_cpt = "Z")

>
>NOT INLIST(SUBSTR(Cdm.New_cpt, 1, 1), "Q", "H", "Z") is optimizable, easy to read, and easy to add new codes to. If EXACT is ON you will need to use SUBSTR().

Or LEFT(). I think that would be faster than SUBSTR() since only one parameter has to be evaluated.