I haven't tried using the NVL() function with the COPY TO command, but it probably works.

>I found it! The field was null. Is there a way to make nulls come out as the correct width?
>
>Donna
>>I have the following vfp table
>>dodah.dbf
>>
>>field1 Char(10)
>>field2 Char(10)
>>field3 Char(30)
>>field4 Char(30)
>>etc for a bunch more fields
>>
>>I am issuing the following command
>>
>>copy to dodah.txt database curdodah fields field1, field2, field3, field4, etc..... TYPE SDF
>>
>>The problem is field3 is empty and writes out only 10 characters wide!! if you add data to several rows in the table to fill in all 30 characters, they come out as 30 characters but the rest of the rows come out as 10 characters!! I have never experienced this before with a TYPE SDF file. Obviously this is playing havoc with trying to process the text file since the records are now variable lenght and you never know which column is short!!
>>
>>Any ideas or suggestions?
>>
>>Thanks!
>>Donna