>>I did:
>>

select distinct ttod( a.from ) from ( lcFile ) into array laTmp

>>
>>Since the table currently only has values 10-10-2003, this should have given:
>>

laTmp[1]  "10-10-2003"

>>but it gave:
>>

laTmp[1]  "02-02-2003"

>>I did a lot of debugging, couldn't explain what was happening and we thought with a laughter "well, maybe it's an easter egg, translating bin 10 to dec 02". :)
>>
>>In fact, what was the cause?! I forgot to specify the a behind lcFile. And there was a similar table open in workarea a! The record over there indeed had 02-02-2003.
>>
>
>Just want to point out that using A as an alias is generally not a good idea. Much better to use the actual alias.

Hi Tamar,

Well, I was not really telling this story to start a discussion on whether or not to use A as an alias in a sql-select. :)

But now that you bring it to *our* attention, in sql-selects I use single-letter aliases a lot and it has never harmed me in any way. The sql-select code is always in its entirety visible on the screen and the interpretation is easy enough. Moreover, a letter is neutral and allows changing the name of the used table more easily; in other cases the name of the used table is even unknown when programming.

We've had some discussions on standards recently, as you probably know. I think that your statement is debateable. Perhaps this reaction is the offset for that debate. :)