By default, Fox compares two strings up to the length of the right-hand string. In your example, the two strings are compared for length = 0. You can change this two ways, SET EXACT, or the exactly equal comparison (==). To get not exactly equals, you can do !(holda == holdb).

>I have
>
>holda = 'a'
>holdb = ''
>IF holda = holdb && returns .T.
>
>Why does that return .T.? I want to say not equal so I tried the !== but that does not work. How can I say not equal?
>
>Thanks
>
>Brenda