1. The obvious - ditch the colon, if possible
2. Try creating a view on the table with the problem column renamed without a colon.

>I'm having a problem with an ODBC connection from VFP6 to a dbase III table. One of the fields has a ':' ( example, type:zone ) in it. I can do a select statement with the field referenced like this, [type:zone]. However, I am unable to get an insert statement to function. The Microsoft dbase odbc driver is saying that the field name, [type:zone], is an invalid name.
>A shortened example of my insert statement is as follows:
>
>Insert into table ( [type:zone] ) values ( 'fielddata' )
>
>Any other field in the table doesn't have the colon. And the above insert example works just fine in regards to any other field. I've searched the
>MS knowledge base without any luck.
>
>Any ideas???
>
>Thanks