Hi Ed,

>
>what should be the latest timestamp of VFPODBC.dll ?
>mine is 6-16-1998

The timestamp is unrelaible because it could be easily changed. Right-click on VFPODBC.dll in Windows Explorer and select properties. You can see DLL version there. You can also see driver version in ODBC manager.

>i downloaded the mdac_typ.exe ( not installed yet ) from the link you suggested ( it is version 2.1 )
>i have .Net beta installed on my computer and
>the last time i remembered it is mdac 2.6 or 2.7

VFP ODBC driver isn't included in any MDAC after 2.5

>i'm confused now whether how to go about the latest VFP ODBC
>please help ?

You can download the latest VFP ODBC driver from http://msdn.microsoft.com/vfoxpro/downloads/addons/odbc.asp.

>
>i found out what i'm doing wrong
>

>when i used allt(c.kind)='FABRIC' in VFP IDE it gets me results
>but when i tested 'FABRIC'$c.kind no records were found
>but when i used allt(c.kind)=='FABRIC' ( double = )
>there were no results
>therefore single = returns results even for EMPTY(c.kind)
>why is that ? ( i ask the same from cindy )
>

String comparison in SQL is controlled by SET ANSI command. In case it's set to OFF (default) the two strings are compared character for character until the end of the shorter string.

SPACE(0) = "FABRIC"   && returns .T.
"FABRIC" = SPACE(0)   && returns .T.

With "==" operater string have to be exactly the same to be considered equal.
I would repeat one more time, don't use ALLTRIM() for fields in SQL comparison or results could be unpredictable.