Hilmar,
Thanks for the test and the test code! I guess it's faster since the whole thing is in memory with alines() ..
>>alines() is simpler and, if you believe the Microsoft documentation, should be faster...
>
>That is a big "if"... However, you are right. I believed it would take alines() too long to copy the text into the array, but the following test program confirms that alines() is, indeed, faster that mline(), even when using the variable _mline.
>
>

>clear
>
>lcString = ""
>for i = 1 to 1000
>	lcString = lcString + chr(13) + chr(10) + alltrim(str(i))
>next
>
>* mline()
>lnStart = seconds()
>for i = 1 to memlines(lcString)
>	discard(mline(lcString, i))
>next
>? "mline():", seconds() - lnStart
>
>* mline() + _mline
>lnStart = seconds()
>_mline = 0
>for i = 1 to memlines(lcString)
>	discard(mline(lcString, 1, _mline))
>next
>? "mline() + _mline:", seconds() - lnStart
>
>* alines()
>lnStart = seconds()
>for i = 1 to alines(MyArray, lcString)
>	discard(MyArray(i))
>next
>? "alines():", seconds() - lnStart
>
>FUNCTION Discard(lcString)
>return .T.
>