>>This is really the situation I was asking for examples on.
>
>Well they're numerous because there are a lot of VFP commands that don't allow name expressions as an argument. To name a few:
>
>BROWSE FIELDS &cFields
>SCAN FOR &cForclause && EVAL() solution will not be optimizable
>LOCATE FOR &cForClause
>ALTER TABLE Mytable &cAlterColumns

Create Table MyTable &cCompleteDefinitionInAString
Create Cursor MyCursor &cCompleteDefinitionInAString

Yes, you can do these with arrays, but nowadays these arrays have 17 columns and they need a certain structure to be maintained - Create Table/Cursor is much easier, and faster (consider the time to build the array, in both coding and run time).

>Though I agree that & is subject to abuse in many cases. I'm convinced that in certain cases it is really helpfull as & the best and clean way to solve the problem.

I think quoting Jerry Purnell (sp?) is due: "Most of the time you don't need it, but when you need it, you need it bad".