after attributing my problems to just my learning curve and removing
what's left of my hair ;-), I have now isolated the specific problem
that I can't resolve

A simple example ... a varchar(65) field contains names such as

RINGBALL
RITEWAY
RITO
RIVERSIDE
RIVIERA
RO-LIN
ROAD WARRIOR
ROADEX
ROADFAST
ROADFORCE
ROADHAWK

when I do an incremental search for 'ROADFORCE (even in the source
code using the data 'tab' in IB_Query), I never find 'ROADFORCE'. The
lookup stops at RO-LIN never getting beyond that entry. If I change
the name RO-LIN to ROLIN, everything works as expected.

My conclusion is that the hyphenated word is the culprit - but why ?
How do I fix and the cause of the gotcha so I avoid similar
situations ?

What am I missing ? How do I fix?

Appreciate any and all help