>If you agree that VFP should optimize STR(), I think you will also agree that VFP should optimize other string functions (LEFT(), REPLICATE(), LEFT(), RIGHT(),...) when the parameter determining the length of the resulting string is a numeric literal. Therefore, the bug in VFP9 is not limited to STR().

I'd better say VFP should optimize string functions, such as LEFT() and RIGHT(), when the functions return a fixed length result, e.g.,
- the functions are applied to fixed-length fields
- a numeric literal parameter is passed


Ben