>if aelement(listtwo, 1) > 0
>acopy(listtwo, newlist)
>endif
>
>etc
>
>but I find that if there is only one record in one of the arrays it does not appear in newlist.


Garry,

Instead of using aElement to check if the adir returns any records
You can do 1 of 2 things :

If alen(listOne,1) > 0
acopy(listOne, newList)
endif

or

If adir(listOne, '*.bmp') > 0
acopy(listOne, newList)
endif

HTH