Am I missing something fundamental here?

If it works with a literal SQL statement, why not just


pcDescript = "English"
lcSQL = "SELECT Id,Descript,lDescript,lDescriptBin from ForeignData where descript='" + ALLTRIM(pcDescript) + "'"


You'll need to check pcDescript if it's entered by the user at it could potentially contain extra SQL clauses. SQL insertion has had me once before

Like I said, this might be me barking up the wrong tree