Jim,
  According to the 4.2 manual (p 171), "Characters string fields may have 1, 2,
or 3 subscripts after them."  Since NAME and NAME(1) mean the same thing,
X-KEY(1,1,2) should be the first two bytes of X-KEY as you conjectured.  I
didn't understand from your message whether

  IF (X-KEY(1,1,2) = "PC") and

  DEF XK,X-KEY[1],2
  IF XK = "PC"

produced the same result or if the second produced the same result as Quiz and
Query did.

Ted
--
Ted Ashton ([log in to unmask]), Info Serv, Southern Adventist University
          ==========================================================
If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who
considered his work important.
                        -- Russell, Bertrand (1872-1970)