That's called obfuscation. Theoretically, it could be intended (protection against reverse engineering, or just abuse of the colleagues who have to maintain that code). But more often, it happens due to other factors. E.g. the law of thermodynamics: things get worse under pressure. Or medical conditions like hypocaffeinemia.

good one.

ekolis suggested switching the variables in the long if statement. That left you with the long statement, didn't make sense because the "if" forced equivalency testing, and left me wondering about VB6. CAN you define a constant value in it? (I know it's loosy-goosey about types.) I had no problem understanding the second version, but didn't know why I knew that was correct. Someone else (didn't record who) explained why. That's one of the nice things about coding, you don't have to explain why something will work, just know that it will. Someone coming later may scratch their head, but it gives them a chance to learn something about code they are supposed to know in the first place if they are reading it. The fact that you use "flag" later as a boolian operator will also give them a clue. (Assuming you aren't throwing in random lines of code that doesn't do anything but confuse a reader.) Just because you can do something doesn't mean it's a good idea. I'd want to shoot you myself, if you made "flag" a string, an integer, a floating number, a bool, and just for good measure throw in some "goto" branching. (I can't remember if the last is possible in VB6.)

We were in the same boat 10 years ago, but it was a good time to re-evaluate and re-design from the ground up. We chose VB.net for our industrial control for our back end (control logic, serial/ip communications, data recording) and front end (user interface) and never looked back. Because sometimes you have to break from the past to move forward. One thing to keep in mind; if your system works involves USDA looking over your records at all, all data must be non-modifiable, which is the opposite of a database. Get caught once changing the data could mean fines, prosecution or even jail time. You don't screw with government records! BTW, you don't work for techi-systems do you? your setup sounds familiar.

I wish I could do more than 5