Use the ALIAS? OK, I must have misunderstood the documentation, which reads:

ALTER TABLE TableName1 
Modifies the structure of a table. The TableName1 parameter specifies the name of the table to be modified. 

I would have used the alias if it hadn't said to use the name.

If this always true, that is, that when the documentation says "name of the table" that the ALIAS can be used as well?

Jim

>>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)
>