Cathi,
Thanks for the reply. I think, though, that my main problem stems from the fact that the chr(149) doesn't originate in my .NET app. It comes from a table in VFP, through the vfpoledb provider. It is apparently not the same thing when it arrives in my c# app. Any thoughts?
thanks,
jfh

>I just ran this sample code and it returned 149. Try this and see what you get:
>
>

>String cString;
>Char mychar;
>mychar=(char)149;
>cString = mychar.ToString() + "ABC";
>int lnChar = (int)Char.Parse(cString.Substring( 0, 1 ));
>