>>reading a recent post, I read ( then proved ) that if you declear a private var in you main program it will have golbal scope.
>>
>>WHY!!!?!?!?!
>
>Because you are confusing private with local. xBase has private variables, most other languages do not have private.
>
>Ther are two issues related to scope of a variability, its visibility (can it be read and written) and its lifetime (when is it released automatically).
>
>

><strong>Scope         Visibility                            Lifetime</strong>
>PUBLIC        In the declaring routine,        From creation unitil it
>              below the declaring routine,     explicitly released or fox
>              and above the declaring          closes
>              routine
>
>PRIVATE       In the declaring routine and     From creation until the
>              below the declaring routine      declaring routine ends
>
>LOCAL         In the declaring routine ONLY    From creation until the
>                                               declaring routine ends
>
>

>
>Hope this helps


thanks for the table, it helps.

btw, the statement ending "...most other languages do not have private" as not the source of confusion. It's that I'm a trained C and Java programmer working with fox right now and a private var is, well, a private var ( but in fox that seems to be a local ), a protected or local var is a private in fox , and the only standard that MS decided to retain was for public scope. thanks again

- jer