255 is a limit on the size of the string literal not the string. What is the expression in lcBEFORE?

>Hi there,
>
>I'm working in a VFP 5.0 application and attempting to assign a table's memo field to a string, which I then pass along to one of my form's procedures using the following command:
>
>nReturn = (&lcBEFORE)
>
>where lnBEFORE is my memo field, and in which nReturn is a numeric value returning either the MIN, MAX or AVG of the string of values (separated by commas) I've passed to the procedure. The procedure is working fine except when I have more than 255 characters (sometimes it's 300+ characters).
>
>Is there a way that I can get around the 255 string-length limit?
>
>Thanks for reading,
>
>Joe