Mike,

To my way of thinking, "upward" means the line has a positive slope.

>Hi Cindy,
>
>I won't argue with the math since I agree with the definition of a positive and negative slope. However, which pattern is actually "correct" when the description "Upward" and "Downward" diagonal is used and does VFP implement it correctly or does VB?
>
>Anyone have an opinion...
>
>Mike.
>
>>
>>From a math article I was able to find, "the slope computed as m = (y2 - y1) / (x2 - x1)." If you set the left-most part of the line at (0, 0) then a lower left to upper right line has a positive slope due to the fact that both the x and y values are increasing, where an upper right to lower left line has a negative slope (y goes from 0 to -something, while x increases). I'd say that a line with a positive slope goes "upward" and a line with a negative slope goes downward.