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  Weakly-Typed VariFields:

  Weakly-typed VariFields allow you to store a portion of any character
  data in the .DBF field itself, with any additional amount, if any, being
  automatically stored in the MEMO file. This substantially reduces the
  amount of disk space required to store the data.  This is sort of a cross
  between using a CHARACTER field and a MEMO field at the same time.

  A 6 byte pointer is maintained at the end of the weakly-typed "V" field
  entry within the DBF file.  When you define the field width for a new
  database file, keep in mind that weakly-typed "V" fields require this
  additional 6 bytes at the end.  The Sx_dbCreate() function will do this
  calculation automatically for you.

  For example, if you create your database with a "V" field of 16 bytes,
  the first 10 bytes are considered 'significant' and can be indexed on.
  The last six bytes are for the pointer information.  If you store 30
  characters of text into this field, the first 10 characters are stored
  within the DBF field, with the remaining 20 characters being
  automatically stored in the memo file.  No special functions are required
  to store or retrieve the field data in this manner.

  If, however, you store only 14 bytes into your 16 byte "V" field, nothing
  will be written to the memo file.  Nothing needs to.  In this case, the
  VariField system is smart enough to see that, had the four byte pointer
  to the memo not been in the way, the whole entry would fit in the .DBF
  field alone.  So, it gives up the four bytes to your data.  The last two
  bytes, however, are always reserved to store the length of the text in
  the "V" field.