Viv:

Thank you for your reply.

It looks like what you are recommending is not standard. The guys who are giving me this file believe this is an easy format for VFP to read.

I have done some reading on VFP 8.0 which I will be upgrading to. This version has the power to read XML files. Do you think I would be wise to ask them to give me their source file in XML format?

Mike Smith