With Fields[No] there is always the problem, that after changing query -
removing or adding fields - you must comb through you full project and
change Fields[9] to Fields[8] for example

Riho-Rene Ellermaa
senior programmer
Hansabank

>I often wonder about this sort of thing. Do personal preferences about
>syntax choice make any difference to the compiled code? Are there

penalties

>for making one's source code as comprehensible as possible?

There may be penalties. I don't know about the Assign method, but using
FieldByName in a loop makes IBO search for the field in every iteration
which is considerably slower than using Fields[<fieldno>]. For better
readability, one may use variables of type TIB_Column (or TIB_Field - I
never use these and don't quite know) and assign the actual field to the
column before starting the loop. If I've understood former suggestions
on
this list, this should be of similar speed to Fields[<fieldno>].