>You have probably already received an answer that works for you, but I got this tip a while back and it comes in pretty handy when nothing else seems to work right. As long as the value of your variable is equal to the alias of the file you are trying to select...type the following
>
>select &ctable

Actually, a better version of the trick is

select select(ctable)

because it won't error out if the table is not in use. Select("AnyNameHere") is returning a zero if there's no cursor with the given alias, so then you're just selecting a new work area.