I did that, but my question remains WHY having to need to do that for the FIELD?

m.lo1 = "ma " so ALLTRIM(UPPER(m.lo1)) makes it "MA"

and

should find

"Grandma Smith"
"Grandma Smith       "
"       Grandma Smith"
"Grandma        Smith"

Right?

Chuck

>BROWSE FOR ALLTRIM(UPPER(person.first)) = ALLTRIM(UPPER(m.lo1))
>
>and
>
>BROWSE FOR ALLTRIM(UPPER(m.lo1)) $ ALLTRIM(UPPER(person.first))
>
>I find I get more consistent results by making each side of the equasion as equal as I can before I do the comparison.