>>Hi!
>>
>>You missed the important difference - In VFP strong typing works only for the parameters and function results for a OLEPUBLIC objects. Regular variables will require to be declared that way, however, there are no type-checking in run-time, that means you still can assign numeric value to a character-declared variable. In VB types are well-controlled.
>>
>
>Hello Vlad,
>
>Will it at least allow for a mechanism to make sure a variable exists (preferable at compile time or earlier)?

That's what Erik was saying. The LanguageOptions property of the _VFP object controls this. Your program will not compile (in other words, you will get compiler errors) if this setting is set appropriately.