>Not a bad idea at all. The only problem is that all calling procedures must know the name to use for the private variable. I offer a little variation:
>
>Local ldBirthdate
>ldBirthDate = GetDate(ldBirthDate)
>where GetDate is responsible for creating the private variable and instantiating the class. The class is still responsible for populating the variable.
>
>Programmers no longer need to know the name of teh variable to instantiate.
>
>Daniel


The programmer does not need to know the private variable. The class however does. Apart from wrapping things in a function, I don't see the difference..