Hi Greg,
no it does'nt. ::(.

Try a = '12......34...56...'
Return is 12..34.56. not 12.34.56. as expected.

I know I can do something like

a = '12......34...56...6..5.'
DO WHILE !EMPTY(OCCURS('..',a))  
 a=STRTRAN(a,'..','.')
ENDDO &&!EMPTY(OCCURS('..',a))
?a

but I search for something without loop.

Agnes

>Agnes,
>
>Does this work ? Replace the dots with spaces
>
>

>
>a = '12...34...56...'
>? StringSearchAndReplace(a, '..', '.')
>
>*-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>function StringSearchAndReplace(Searched, SearchFor, ReplaceWith, IgnoreCase)
>
>	local i, Offset, SearchForLength, ReplaceWithLength
>	
>	SearchForLength = len(SearchFor)
>	ReplaceWithLength = len(ReplaceWith)
>	Offset = 1
>	
>	do case
>	case IgnoreCase
>		i = atc(SearchFor, substr(Searched, Offset))
>		do while !empty(i)
>			i = i + Offset - 1
>			Searched = stuff(Searched, i, SearchForLength, ReplaceWith)
>			Offset = Offset + ReplaceWithLength
>			i = atc(SearchFor, substr(Searched, Offset))
>		enddo
>	otherwise
>		i = at(SearchFor, substr(Searched, Offset))
>		do while !empty(i)
>			i = i + Offset - 1
>			Searched = stuff(Searched, i, SearchForLength, ReplaceWith)
>			Offset = Offset + ReplaceWithLength
>			i = at(SearchFor, substr(Searched, Offset))
>		enddo
>	endcase
>	
>	return Searched
>endfunc
>*--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>