We are searching records for any condition using a from and to condition. Records are stored like so:

SMITH*JAMES
SMITH III*MICHAEL
SMITH JR*JOHN
SMITHERMAN*PETER

I must account for the user entering from: SA to: SMITH or from: SMITH to: SMITH, or from: A to: Z, etc. SMITH to SMITH should NOT include SMITHERMAN...

The below code works (If exact is on and near is off), but can it be faster?

xreturn=.T.  && include this record, .f. if record does not meet condition
  IF !EMPTY(xfrom) OR !EMPTY(xto)
    IF ALLTRIM(UPPER(xfrom))=ALLTRIM(UPPER(xto))
      IF ALLTRIM(UPPER(xfrom)) $ LEFT(UPPER(LEFT(STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1),;
          AT("*",STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1))-1)),LEN(ALLTRIM(UPPER(xfrom)))) ;
          .AND. UPPER(LEFT(STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1),;
          AT("*",STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1))-1));
          <= UPPER(ALLTRIM(xto))
        ? po_name+ "    YES a match"
        xreturn = .T.
      ELSE	&& not a match
        ? po_name+"    NO not a match"
        xreturn = .F.
      ENDIF
    ELSE
      *--TCH 08/13/2003 * for  SMITH III*JAMES, etc
      *IF !BETWEEN(UPPER(LEFT(insured.po_name,AT("*",insured.po_name)-1)),xfrom,xto)
      IF !BETWEEN(UPPER(LEFT(STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1),;
          AT("*",STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1))-1)),xfrom,xto)
        xreturn = .F.
      ENDIF
    ENDIF
  ENDIF