SET ANSI OFF SET EXACT ON CLEAR * Turn rushmore reporting on SYS(3054,2) * Create a test cursor CREATE CURSOR test (field C(10)) INDEX on field TAG field INDEX on PADR(field,5) TAG field_t * Put some data in the cursor FOR i = 1 TO 10000 INSERT INTO test VALUES (SYS(2015)) ENDFOR * Determine the last value cValue = LEFT(test.field,LEN(ALLTRIM(test.field))-1) * Try the untrimmed index ?"This one works" ?"---------------------------------" SELECT * FROM test WHERE field = cValue INTO CURSOR index * Try the trimmed index ? ?"This one does not work" ?"---------------------------------" SELECT * FROM test WHERE PADR(field,5) = cValue INTO CURSOR noindex>I think VFP compares the KEY of index and if thay doesn't match VFP doesn't use this tag for Optimization.