Paul Christidis asks in part about FUNCTION CURRENT-DATE: <snip> >My test seem to indicate that the function 'limits' the size of the returned string to the size of the receiving field. >Does this concur with the findings of anyone else on this list? </snip> Yes, this concurs with my findings. FUNCTION CURRENT-DATE fills in its own temporary 21-byte area. Then the MOVE statement that assigns the function value to your variable in working-storage works just like any other Cobol MOVE statement. If the receiving field is smaller than 21 bytes the excess is truncated. John Schick Sr. Technical Development Advisor HBOC/Amisys