in VFP's Help We can find :
"If you use the LOCATE command without the FOR expression, Visual FoxPro
positions the record pointer at the first logical record. This is faster
than using GO TOP when a filter is in use or when DELETED is ON."

For my curiosity, I wanted to know how much faster LOCATE is, but I got the opposite !
Is the information provided by MS wrong , or did I make the test incorectly ???

TEST 1

SET DELETED ON
SET ORDER TO 1

USING LOCATE : 42.76 SECONDS
USING GOTOP : 22.51 SECONDS


TEST 2

SET DELETED ON
SET ORDER TO

USING LOCATE : 30.03 SECONDS
USING GOTOP : 7.89 SECONDS


TEST 3

SET DELETED OFF
SET ORDER TO 1

USING LOCATE : 26.15 SECONDS
USING GOTOP : 22.53 SECONDS


TEST 4

SET DELETED OFF
SET ORDER TO

USING LOCATE : 13.48 SECONDS
USING GOTOP : 7.82 SECONDS




The code I run is :

CLOSE ALL
CLEAR ALL
CLEAR EVENTS 
SET DELETED OFF && ON

USE myTable
SET ORDER TO 1 
nSecs = SECONDS()
FOR n = 1 TO 10000000
   GO BOTTOM
   GO TOP 
NEXT
MESSAGEBOX(TRANSFORM(SECONDS() - nSecs ) +  " Seconds")

I just alternate SET DELETED and SET ORDER.

Regards

Cesar