Dave,
thanks for the input. I used the space only becuase it was ignored by the program that read the file. It worked but with files over 12MB, removing the spaces makes a 10% or better difference when sending them over the "wire".

I have a question. How do you format your code examples in HTML???? Being an old DOS guy I feel like I missed the bus somewhere.
TIA

>John,
>
>There is no difference between the kinds of quotes used... the problem was the space you put between them. *g*
>
>

>* BAD:
>copy to o:\apinvcln.txt deli with ' ' (1 space) with tab.
>
>* GOOD:
>copy to o:\apinvcln.txt deli with '' with tab
>copy to o:\apinvcln.txt deli with "" with tab
>copy to o:\apinvcln.txt deli with [] with tab
>

>
>>thanks, it worked! This is the first time I have ever seen a difference between the single and double quotes. I had not tried the double quote assuming it would be the same result.
>
>>>No space.

copy to o:\apinvcln.txt deli with ""  with tab

>>>>I can't seem to get the copy to delimeted to export a VFP table without some kind of marker on each side of each field. Currently I am using this command:
>>>>
>>>>copy to o:\apinvcln.txt deli with ' ' (1 space) with tab.
>>>>
>>>>This works ok but encloses each field with spaces. If I use the empty '' I get the ' on each side of the field.
>>>>I tried BLANK in place of the space but I get a syntax error.
>>>>