Hi, Gary-

>I must have missed the real question here.

The difference is subtle. It's not whether the variable's value has a period, but whether the variable's literal has one.

>I put:

>x=[messagebox(thisform.caption)]
>&x
>
>x='thisform.caption'
>messagebox(&x)

In your example, The string "x" has been evaluated (no period in "x") and resulted in a perfectly legitimate command.

messagebox(thisform.caption)

>
>Isn't this what we're talking about? I must have misunderstood the issue.

Let me give you an example, and hopefully, that'll help explain the difference. Let's say I have a form that builds a Select statement that I'll run before printing a report. So, I have a custom property called SelectCmd. Something like:

ThisForm.SelectCmd = "Select * from Customers"

I can't do the following:

&thisform.SelectCmd.

Or any other variation. Since the "." terminates the macro expression, FoxPro would try to find a string variable called ThisForm, but that's of course not available. So, I have to do this:

lcCmd = thisform.SelectCmd
&lcCmd. && Don't need the period in this case, but just making the point. No pun intended.

The issue of prefixing literals with "m." is the same thing.

Local lcSelectCmd
lcSelectCmd = "Select * from Customers"
&m.SelectCmd. && Will look for a string variable "m"
&lcSelectCmd. && Is okay.