Subject Re: INVALID INDEX DESCRIPTOR From Ivar B. Jessen <nospam@nospam.com> Date Thu, 17 Jul 2014 07:01:40 +0200 Newsgroups dbase.getting-started On Wed, 16 Jul 2014 21:41:19 -0400 Bruce Heath Sender:  Bruce Heath <bah@specsol.com.au> wrote the following in: Newsgroup: dbase.getting-started Subject: INVALID INDEX DESCRIPTOR: MessageID:<YxYD1AWoPHA.2792@ip-0AF2DFD4>    >Hi - I'm new to Visual dBase and have just purchased Dbase 9. >I'm trying to create a table with an attached index. > >Table creates - no problems - only 3 columns and about 3000 rows. > >Go to create index ("complex" type) with structure : > >TRIM(field_1)+TRIM(field_2)      **Both fields are character type > >On trying to save the file I get : Read the warning in the help file, subject INDEX. "Warning! Do not create an index where the length of the index key expression varies from record to record. Specifically, do not use TRIM( ) or LTRIM( ) to remove blanks from strings unless you compensate by adding enough spaces to make sure the index key values are all the same length. The - operator concatenates strings while rearranging trailing blanks. Varied key lengths may cause corrupted indexes." Ivar B. Jessen