Patrick-

>actually, i was refering to NewObject vs CreateObject. i didn't realize
>there was a NewObject function. for me, a real benefit of this
>forum is to see mention of VFP features that i was not aware of.

NewObject() was introduced in 6.0 (was it SP3? or the base version?) Anyway, it's nice. I like it, though people have found that it can be significantly slower than using CREATEOBJECT. However, since maintainability is as important an issue to consider as performance, I've found the trade-off to be worthwhile. YMMV.