SeekStr = CompCode          +;
                  SSN               +;
                  left(rtrim(NameL)+', '+rtrim(NameF),37)+;
                  str(OEPDY,4)      +;
                  str(OEPDM,2,0,'0')+;
                  str(OEPDD,2,0,'0')

 if .not.(;
                           CompCode          +;
                           SSN               +;
                           left(rtrim(NameL)+', '+rtrim(NameF),37)+;
                           str(OEPDY,4)      +;
                           str(OEPDM,2,0,'0')+;
                           str(OEPDD,2,0,'0')   = SeekStr)
                        
                           select 'QChange'
                           replace CouldntUpd with .T.
                           loop
endif           

This is what V.dbase help says about STR

STR(<expN> [, <length expN> [, <decimals expN> [, <expC>]]])

expC

The character to pad the beginning of the returned character string with when the length of the returned string is less than digits long. The default pad character is a space. If you want to specify a value for , you must also specify values for <
length expN> and . You can specify more than one character for , but STR( ) uses only the first one.