BINGO..... I found it. Thank you so much for teaching me how to debug my app by looking at what's going on under the framework's hood.
My vfp data table had a character field named VALUE. SQL syntax choked on it. That is why I was getting the syntax error after .net manufactured the UPDATE/INSERT commands.

Thanx again,
Dr. G. (Neil)

>Neil,
>The file you're looking for is in Mere Mortals Framework project, mmData.cs. The object is mmDataAccessOleDB, and the method is SaveDataSet(DataSet ds, string tableName,
> string primaryKeyName, bool retrieveAutoIncrementPK, IDbDataAdapter dbAdapter).
>
>Put a breakpoint about halfway down the method, on the line "if (this.DataAdapter.InsertCommand == null)"
>
>When this runs, after either verifying it's not null, or after the next line of code creates the command object, look at what's in this.DataAdapter.InsertCommand.CommandText -- this is what will be sent to VFP. If the problem isn't immediately apparent, try copying it to the VFP command window. You might also want to post it here. It may catch more than one eye!
>
>---J
>
>
>>It makes perfect sense to look at the data adapter but I don't know how to hook into it and view what is being transmitted. Where would you do it and how? What class, etc. It would be a terrific skill to master since I continue to struggle with the lack of adpater wizard support for vfp.
>>
>>Neil