>I'm getting the error message "File '58070939.dbf' does not exist." on the ALTER TABLE statement below; I don't understand how a file created by "COPY TO" could not exist, especially after I have USE'd it. (When the error occurs, the file is open in the current work area).
>
>Could this be related to the OS? I use XP, but my user is in NT.
>
>Any suggestions on alternatives would be welcome. (Note that I want to use COPY TO, instead of SELECT, because of the current filter, if any -- which SELECT would ignore.)
>
>Thanks,
>
>Jim
>

>lcNewFile=SYS(2023)+"\"+SYS(3)+".DBF"
>COPY TO (lcNewFile)
>
>lcAlias='_New_File'
>USE (lcNewFile) IN 0 EXCLUSIVE ALIAS (lcAlias)
>
>FOR EACH oColumn IN loGrid.COLUMNS
>   lcColumn='_Col'+thorn(oColumn.COLUMNORDER)
>   DO CASE
>      CASE 'C'=VARTYPE(lcValue)
>         lcWidth=MAX(60,LEN(lcValue))
>         ALTER TABLE (lcNewFile) ADD COLUMN (lcColumn) C(lcWidth)
>

Must Yse Alias of the table not the table name itself

ALTER TABLE _New_File ADD COLUMN (lcColumn) C(lcWidth)