diff --git a/harbour/ChangeLog b/harbour/ChangeLog
index 879319d703..cabb52465d 100644
--- a/harbour/ChangeLog
+++ b/harbour/ChangeLog
@@ -17,6 +17,26 @@
    past entries belonging to author(s): Viktor Szakats.
 */
 
+2009-08-12 00:15 UTC+0200 Przemyslaw Czerpak (druzus/at/priv.onet.pl)
+  * harbour/contrib/xhb/xcstr.prg
+    % fixed fatal for performance code used to serialize hash arrays
+      in ValToPrg() functions. I know that xHarbour does not have native
+      support for hash array iteration in FOR EACH statements so it's
+      necessary to make some hacks but even there serialization can be
+      quite easy done by simple FOR/NEXT loop and function calls to
+      access given keys and values.
+      Please remember that sending :keys or :values messages to hash
+      arrays is very expensive in both languages because each time
+      new array is created with copy of all key or values items.
+      In the old code :values message was send inside a loop so to serialize
+      hash array with 1000 items it was created 1000 arrays with 1000
+      items inside each of them. It means 1000000 unnecessary item copy
+      calls. Modern computers are very fast but such code can kill the
+      performance on any hardware. It's also classic example when forcing
+      FOR EACH usage in all places can give code thousands times slower
+      then code using simple FOR/NEXT.
+    % few minor optimizations
+
 2009-08-12 00:07 UTC+0200 Viktor Szakats (harbour.01 syenar.hu)
   - tests/bldtest/bldtest.hbp
   + tests/bldtest/Makefile
diff --git a/harbour/contrib/xhb/xcstr.prg b/harbour/contrib/xhb/xcstr.prg
index f20891cea8..06def005ae 100644
--- a/harbour/contrib/xhb/xcstr.prg
+++ b/harbour/contrib/xhb/xcstr.prg
@@ -136,12 +136,11 @@ RETURN "[" + cString + "]"
 //--------------------------------------------------------------//
 FUNCTION ValToPrg( xVal, cName, nPad, aObjs )
 
-   LOCAL cType := ValType( xVal )
    LOCAL aVar, cRet, cPad, nObj
 
    //TraceLog( xVal, cName, nPad, aObjs )
 
-   SWITCH cType
+   SWITCH ValType( xVal )
       CASE 'C'
          RETURN StringToLiteral( xVal )
 
@@ -152,7 +151,7 @@ FUNCTION ValToPrg( xVal, cName, nPad, aObjs )
          RETURN IIF( xVal, ".T.", ".F." )
 
       CASE 'N'
-         RETURN Str( xVal )
+         RETURN hb_nToS( xVal )
 
       CASE 'A'
          IF cName == NIL
@@ -184,22 +183,23 @@ FUNCTION ValToPrg( xVal, cName, nPad, aObjs )
          RETURN cRet
 
       CASE 'H'
-         IF Len( xVal ) == 0
-            RETURN "hb_Hash()"
+         IF Empty( xVal )
+            cRet := "hb_Hash()"
          ELSE
             cRet := "{ "
-
-            FOR EACH aVar IN xVal:Keys
-               cRet += ValToPrg( aVar ) + " => "
-               cRet += ValToPrg( xVal:Values[ aVar:__EnumIndex() ] ) + ", "
+            FOR EACH aVar IN xVal
+               IF aVar:__enumIndex() != 1
+                  cRet += ", "
+               ENDIF
+               cRet += ValToPrg( aVar:__enumKey() )
+               cRet += " => "
+               cRet += ValToPrg( aVar )
             NEXT
-
-            /* We know for sure xVal isn't empty, and a last ',' is here */
-            cRet = SubStr( cRet, 1, Len( cRet ) - 2 ) + " }"
-
-            RETURN cRet
+            cRet += " }"
          ENDIF
 
+         RETURN cRet
+
 /* There is no support for codeblock serialization */
 #if 0
       CASE 'B'
@@ -286,9 +286,7 @@ RETURN LTrim( CStr( xVal ) )
 //--------------------------------------------------------------//
 FUNCTION ValToDate( xVal )
 
-   LOCAL cType := ValType( xVal )
-
-   SWITCH cType
+   SWITCH ValType( xVal )
       CASE 'A'
       CASE 'H'
       CASE 'L'
@@ -334,9 +332,7 @@ RETURN { ValToCharacter( xVal ) => xVal }
 //--------------------------------------------------------------//
 FUNCTION ValToLogical( xVal )
 
-   LOCAL cType := ValType( xVal )
-
-   SWITCH cType
+   SWITCH ValType( xVal )
       CASE 'A'
       CASE 'D'
       CASE 'H'
@@ -373,9 +369,7 @@ RETURN .F.
 //--------------------------------------------------------------//
 FUNCTION ValToNumber( xVal )
 
-   LOCAL cType := ValType( xVal )
-
-   SWITCH cType
+   SWITCH ValType( xVal )
       CASE 'A'
       CASE 'H'
          RETURN Len( xVal )
@@ -413,9 +407,7 @@ RETURN 0
 //--------------------------------------------------------------//
 FUNCTION ValToObject( xVal )
 
-   LOCAL cType := ValType( xVal )
-
-   SWITCH cType
+   SWITCH ValType( xVal )
       CASE 'A'
          ENABLE TYPE CLASS ARRAY
          EXIT