>George,
>
>PCOUNT() should be available in FPW, as the dBASE compatability release was 2.6a, I **think**.

It's not in my help file (I'm using 2.6a, upgraded from 2.6), so my assumption, correct or incorrect, is that PCOUNT() didn't appear until VFP.
>
>In any case it certainly appears that any of us still using PARAMETERS where PCOUNT is available are using the WRONG thing! As has been pointed out by a few here, PCOUNT() *may* have been introduced for dBASE compatability (that's the way I remember it too) **BUT** it sure has some differences from PARAMETERS() and they are key! The biggie, of course, is that PCOUNT() **ALWAYS** returns count of parameters in the *current* procedure/function where it is executing [as opposed to PARAMETERS() which reports the *last* one encountered, regardless of what/where it was].
>
>Cheers,
>Jim N
>
I'd agree wholeheartedly except that I have to still work in FPW 2.6 :-( For me, simply maintaining the practice of making sure that the function is referenced before anything else can be (I don't use OKLs, so that's not a problem), means I don't have to keep track of which version (as if that were tough) I'm working in. I certainly wouldn't recommend to anyone using VFP only that they use PARAMETERS() over PCOUNT() for testing how many parameters were passed.