simple comparison failing

[Tyler]

Hmm...I think I may have found a reason.

Initially, r="".  (no edit)

Later, r=FIELDVAL(table,fieldnumber);

Finally, we come to IF r eq "Y"

Is FIELDVAL somehow assigning an edit type of the table's field to r,
and then "Y" is being cast to that arbitrarily assigned edit type?  If
so, that would make sense: ( (int)r == (int)"Y") = true

What are the rules for how filePro does casting and for assigning
edits to undefined variables?