Hi Walter,
>In theory, yes, the order in which the CASE statements are evaluated does matter, however In practise it seem neglible. However, You're right it should be on the bottom

The theory works only in languages where a fixed expression
with pre-detemined possible variations like

CASE I of
   1..3 :
   4..6 :
END

enables the compiler to pre-generate the jump targets:
vfp Case is analogous to if/elsif/else/endif (as you know <bg>).

>How about this one, which takes a bit different appoach and
>theorectically does an extra loop on the average,

Nice one if i visualized the process correctly<g>,
jumping around and still having a softseek at the end via the flag...

Exit would be a hindrance in this code.

rgds.

thomas