>I also think that if you are using a file that is bigger than 1 Meg you probably shouldn't convert it to a string if FoxPro lets you or not, but that's just my personal opinion.

I actually disagree. If you need a string, go ahead and make a by-God string. ;-)

Fox has always been amazing about handling strings. I remember in FPW I wrote a GenscrnX SPR-driver that basically passed an entire generated SPR through StrTran(). During testing, I ran some fairly large strings thru StrTran() before releasing this beastie to the client. It was amazingly useful and QUITE fast.

(I actually wrote that driver because Ken Levy told me it would be difficult and slow. It was neither. <g>)

Don't shy away from big strings in memvars. Sometimes it's just what you need! ;-)