Arne,
It's quite simple actually. FoxPro doesn't ignore the blanks, but a blank character corresponds to CHR(32) which is lower than any digits or characters. To demonstrate, try the following:

CREATE CURSOR somefile (LINE c(2))

INSERT INTO somefile VALUE(" A")
INSERT INTO somefile VALUE("AA")
INSERT INTO somefile VALUE(" Z")
INSERT INTO somefile VALUE("ZZ")
INSERT INTO somefile VALUE(" 0")
INSERT INTO somefile VALUE(" 1")
INSERT INTO somefile VALUE(" a")
INSERT INTO somefile VALUE(" b")

SELECT PADR(ALLTRIM(line), 2) AS cSortFld,;
       line,;
       ASC(LEFT(line, 1)) + ASC(RIGHT(line, 1)) AS nAsc;
 FROM somefile;
 ORDER BY 1;
INTO CURSOR CaseSensitive

SELECT PADR(ALLTRIM(UPPER(line)), 2) AS cSortFld,;
       UPPER(line), ASC(LEFT(UPPER(line), 1)) + ASC(RIGHT(UPPER(line), 1)) AS nAsc;
 FROM somefile;
ORDER BY 1;
INTO CURSOR CaseInsensitive

>Daniel,
>
>(Also: thanks, Sylvain)
>
>>Try:
>>

>>SELE PADR(ALLTRIM(line),2) FROM somefile ORDER BY 1
>
>Of course you mean PADL :)
>
>Thanks, that did work, but I can't quite figure out why.  Why is this any different from just PADL(Line,2)?
>
>-Arne

Daniel