>It looks very similar to the bug described in SQL SELECT bug in VFP 8, using memo >fields Thread #792876 Message #792876

I had the same feeling looking at this problem. It appears that VFP has a rule that turns a concatenation of two or more character/memo fields

SELECT f1 + f2 AS NEWFIELD

into a character field, even if they are too long to fit or my expression clearly indicates I want something longer that can only fit in a memo field.

SELECT SUBSTR(f1 + f2, 1, 600) AS NEWFIELD

Seeing 600 as the field length, I would expect VFP to create a memo field (it actually does if it is a SUBSTR() of a single field and not a concatenation).

John