Joel,

You're confusing field type with filed content. The field is character type by data may be binary, at least partially. The following code should give better idea what is stored in the field

CLEAR
FOR i=1 TO LEN(myfield)
	lcChar = SUBSTR(myfield,i,1)
	? i, lcChar, ASC(lcChar)
ENDFOR

BTW, How do you get the data from mainframe?

>I have a Char binary field.
>
>When I browse I see something like " || -10.25 " The || seems to be a one space code of some kind.
>
>That data comes from mainframe and the real value of that field is $10.25
>
>
>So i tried x=val(substr(alltrim(field),2)) and I get 0.00
>
>If I print ? substr(alltrim(field),2) it shows 10.25
>
>It does not seem to act liker a Char field???