The easiest (and fastest)way that I've found is using

APPEND FROM ... TYPE SDF

As long as your text file is in SDF (fixed column) format, it's
really easy. To really make things fast, do a CREATE CURSOR and
append into the cursor. Here's how it looks:

CREATE CURSOR yomomma ;
(column1 C 20, ;
filler1 C 1, ;
column2 C 10, ;
filler2 C 1...etc.

then do your append from.

Normally I'll create any needed index tags between creating the
cursor and appending from the file. This method is MUCH faster
than creating a static DBF and appending and MUCH MUCH faster
than FGETS.

Michael