>>I get .F., .T., for the first two comparisons.
>Yeah I had them backwards.
>
>The string comparison rules are;
>
>

>SET EXACT OFF
>1. The strings are considered equal
>2. The strings are compared one character at a time
>3. If a mismatched character is hit they are considered unequal
>4. The comparison stops when the string on the right side of the = is exhausted
>
>SET EXACT ON
>1.  The shorter of the two strings is padded on the right with spaces to be
>    equal in length to the longer
>
>the rest of the comparison is the same as SET EXACT OFF
>
>==
>The string are compared the same as as set exact off, plus
>5. If the strings are still equal their lengths are compared and the result is
>   returned
>

Thanks Jim; it seems I shared in the "common misconception" you mentioned. Çetin pointed me to a quick test that showed me that I was wrong in my previous comment to you.

BTW, this isn't quite clear from the HELP. Is this behavior documented somewhere else?

Hilmar.