>>>>>>>>>>>I agree with Tamar on this one. I have seen the SELECT get confused and cause extremely difficult to track down bugs in the past. Whether this is still a problem with SELECT or has been fixed, I do not know. I've simply made it my own personal rule to use at least 2 character SELECT alias' as this prevents all possible confusion with the A-J, 1-10 standard areas.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Hi Fred,
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>I have never seen the sql-select get confused (I'm in fp/vfp since 1990 or so) and I'm also certain that I'll never gonna see it happen in the future. It's just simply not true that VFP can get confused. There's only one way to convince me in this case and that is some 'code to reproduce'.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>I definately saw this when FoxPro (not VFP) first implemented the SELECT statement. It caused me to lose several days sleep, so when I found that a two character alias didn't cause the problem, I lived with. It's proabably been fixed somewhere along the line. But I still remember the pain it caused. It was very real.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Fred, I believe you, of course. But now it's vfp7/8 ...
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>No doubt, but I never saw a reason to revert to something that caused problems when the workaround was better.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I understand, really. But please, let's not give this obsolete advice anymore, unless someone can prove (reproduction in vfp6/7/8) that it's still a valid advice.
>>>>>
>>>>>I don't buy that it's obsolete advice at all. I no longer have to go that far back (to non-VFP apps), but if I did, I surely wouldn't want to be bit by something that I "knew" worked just fine. There's nothing to be gained, except in the rarest circumstances of need for length of command, by using a 1 character alias. And even if I did use a single character, I would still avoid A-J and M.
>>>>
>>>>It IS obsolete advice! It's up to you/Tamar to prove that I'm wrong.
>>>
>>>I don't need to "prove" anything. Purposely using a potentially confusing alias is not good practice. Whether it's confusing to the engine or to the person reading the code is sufficient for me not to use it any longer. YMMV, so good luck continuing to use it. I'm not gonna stop you.
>>
>>Fred, if you don't want to prove it, fine with me. But then also you should not tell other people that they're "using a potentially confusing alias" and that such is "not good practice". (Let me note once more, we're talking here about the use in a sql-select.)
>>
>>Again, we're kind of going in circles, but I feel the need to continue responding as long as you think you can tell me/us what is "not good practice" without providing any evidence.
>
>The only "evidence" I can offer you, which you consider not to be "good enough", is that single character alias is just not descriptive enough. Look, Peter, I'm obviously never going to convince you, nor you convince me. So we'll just have to agree to disagree here. Everyone else can decide on their own, OK?

Right, they're all grownups. Here in Europe it's bedtime. 'See' you all tomorrow :)