Hi Bret.

Is there a programmatic way to check for a table's link to a DBC

LPARAMETERS tcTable

LOCAL lnHnd, lnHdrStart, lnHdrSize, lcBackLink

*** Check that the file exists
IF ! FILE( tcTable )
   ERROR "9000: Cannot locate file " + tcTable
   RETURN .F.
ENDIF

*** Open the file at low level - Read Only if just reading info
lnHnd = FOPEN( tcTable, IIF( lnParms > 1, 2, 0) )

*** Check file is open
IF lnHnd > 0
   *** Backlink is last 263 bytes of the header so calculate position
   *** Max header size is (32 + ( 255 * 32 ) + 264) = 8456 Bytes
   lcStr = FREAD( lnHnd, 8456 )
   *** Field records end with 13 NULLS + "CR"
   lcFieldEnd = REPLICATE( CHR(0), 13 ) + CHR(13)
   lnHeaderStart = AT( lcFieldEnd, lcStr ) + 13
   *** Move file pointer to header start position
   FSEEK( lnHnd, lnHeaderStart )
   *** Read backlink
   lcBackLink = UPPER( ALLTRIM( STRTRAN( FGETS( lnHnd, 263 ), CHR(0) ) ) )
ELSE
   *** Mayday mayday! Cannot open table  
ENDIF

and then remove the link to the DBC before I open the table up?

But be careful about removing the backlink. You could have more trouble than you have bargained for if long field names are being used.