>>Hello All,
>>Can someone show me the alternatives using public variable.
>>I have used them extensively in my application but i hear it can get really dangerous.
>>
>>I have used public for the ff;
>>
>>1. At the main program (startup) to retrieve some table
>>values into memory to be used throughout the program without opening the table all the time. I have read about \DEFINE. Can this work for retriving table values?
>
>#DEFINE will only work for real constants. To read a value from a table or text-file, a global variable is really the only choice.
>
>A variable declared in your main program is public for practical reasons (unless you declare it LOCAL), since it is available everywhere.
>

Private variables would not be seen in non-modal forms beyond the Load of the form.


>>
>>2. Arrays deinitions - to prevent the erroy message 'array does not exist'
>
>See help for EXTERNAL.
>
>>PS. May i also know what the real dangers with public variables are?
>
>The real danger is messy programming. If you have scores of public variables, and then forget one of them, you may overwrite the value somewhere else.