>>Are you using the menu builder?.
>>Do you want the _Tally value to be displayed when the user drops down a menu item or, as a response to the user selecting a menu item.
>>Are we talking about a menu bar (top level) menu item, or a sub menu item?
>---
>yes - vfp50
>>Are you using the menu builder?.
>
>when the user drops down the menu. the _tally must be displayed on the menu when the user first goes into the program before the menu option is picked.
>>Do you want the _Tally value to be displayed when the user drops down a menu item or, as a response to the user selecting a menu item.
>
>a sub menu item that calls a procedure.
>>Are we talking about a menu bar (top level) menu item, or a sub menu item?

So, my original message still stands.
1) You need to redefine the menu prompt (the text) each time your value of _Tally changes. The menu option cannot be made to automatically update itself.

2) to make the change you need to issue a DEFINE BAR command every time you need the text of the menu item to change.

3) To be able to issue the DEFINE BAR command, you need to know the name of the PAD that is used to define the menu bar item (top level) and the number of the BAR on the dropdown menu that contains your text.
When you use the menu builder, these two values (pad and bar) are randomly generated. You must set known values inside the menu builder.
Edit your menu, then click on the options button for the top-level menu item. There is a field for PAD NAME, enter a name (e.g. padTop). Now go down to you submenu and click on the options button against the item that will contain the changing text value. There is a field for BAR#, enter a number (e.g. 1).

Now you know the values for Pad and Bar that will be used whwn your menu is generated and run.

Now, whenever you need the number on the menu to change, you can issue the command (where _Tally holds the new number) :-
DEFINE BAR 1 OF padTop PROMPT "Record count is " + LTRIM( STR( _Tally))

Hope it helps