First, I like critique, particularly since I’m new to VFP. Second, WOW – a friend told me that folks on UT were great – your efforts in my behalf prove that and are greatly appreciated. Now, to improve my understanding of VFP (very intimidating compared to Clipper, what with all the commands/functions etc + finding them in the reference is also challenging), I’d like to impose again & ask a few questions on your examples.

In the first:
1. REPLACE &lcReplaceString. IN Temp – I don’t understand the use of the “.” After &lcReplaceString; also, why did you have to use the “&” and not the (lcReplaceString) syntax.
2. USE IN SELECT("c_Source")& USE IN SELECT("TEMP") – Am not familiar with this syntax – are you closing both tables?

In the second:
1. Sometimes you use the m.lcvar syntax and sometimes only lcvar. Is there a reason for this? Also, you specifically declare some variables Local, is there a rationale for when & when not to?
2. I would have never found the Scatter command by using the VFP reference!! Not mentioned in the “manipulating records” section of the Index.
3. I notice you do not use table buffering in your examples. In Clipper, I did all of my modeling computations in a “RAM” Drive so the “reads & writes to disk” were done in core until the modeling was complete, then copied the result to the “C” Drive. Isn’t Table Buffering in VFP the way to insure that calculations take place in memory without constant read/writes to the hard drive; or, does VFP do that automatically?

In the Third: I’m humbled! Basically 1 expression does the whole thing…but everything is a learning experience! Thanks again for all your efforts.
Barne