Thanks Jay, I'll try it and hope I can get it right! :)
You've been a great help and I can't thank you enough!
Take care
Max

>> Max --

>> With this being an aspect of a program rather than a one-time update, I'd have to agree that modifying the programs to get them in sync is a necessary first step.

>> The date data type does provide a lot of valuable services. You can do date arithmetic (first day of week, a month ago, first day of month, QUARTER, Day of Week) function that come natively with VFP or simple library routines that have been noted here at UT. Storing dates as characters is OK for storage purposes, but still runs into the problems of comparison noted earlier.

>> To update the original file, you can simple add the date field in the table designer. SET STRICTDATE TO 0. Then REPLACE ALL dNewDate WITH CTOD (cOldDate). Then, you can change the input form to use the new field, and then change all references to the old date field elsewhere to the new date field.

>> Best wishes!

>> Jay