this is probably one of the most basic questions i can ask, but how do i trim all characters after the space in between first and last name..?

Are you asking how you get just the first name?

This can be an issue as are there cases where the first name has two words such as Billy Bob and also where the last name can have two words two such as Von Buren.

It is better if you seperate them out to two different fields.

If none of these situations existed though, you could use leftwords (), or position () to get what you want.

ahh got it,

LeftWords(cSalesman;1)

oh, but yeah i can see how it would be a pain if there were 2 words in the first name...