Dear Irv,

Thanks for the suggestions.

I just discovered that is is possible to return an array from a function. (I was on a long flight and was catching up on some reading.) There is a explanation by Tamar E. Granor in the March 2002 FoxPro Advisor magazine, pp. 11-12.

Returning an array from a function only works in VFP 7, and there is a rule that somewhat limits its usefulness: the array must be in scope after the function finishes running. If the function is a method and the array is a property of the same object, it works OK. So this would work for me.

Thanks again.

Rick