I have a strange problem with a variable that I have created.
The variable "thisyear" is a public variable.
Each time I reference a certain table as demonstrated below, I lose the variable as demonstrated in the following piece of code.


SELECT VILLAS
* -- the variable value is numeric ( 2003 )
=messagebox(vartype(thisyear),16,"villas")


SELECT V_CODE
set filter to
set order to
* -- the variable is lost now logical
=messagebox(vartype(thisyear),16,"v_code")

SELECT V_season
SET FILTER TO
* -- the variable value goes back to numeric ( 2003 ) again
=messagebox(vartype(thisyear),16,"V99seas")


v_code table was filtered at one point on the variable thisyear but even after releasing the filter I still have the same problem.
What is causing this ?
How can I work around it ?

thanks in advance