Thanks Hilmar,

I think Daniel has suggested a pretty good workaround

>I'm afraid you will have to write a function that uses str(-8.81, 20, 12) (assuming a maximum of 12 decimals), and then removes trailing zeroes.
>
>Hilmar.
>
>>That's the problem I don't know how many decimals it will be
>>
>>It's actually in a select statement built on the fly
>>

>>Select Max(_screen.Textwidth(Transform(Mytable.field1))) as column1, ;
>>Max(_screen.Textwidth(Transform(Mytable.field2))) as column2 ;
>>from tableX into ...etc
>>