>>>>Thanks, Aleksey. In other words we need to use this setting for TABLEVALIDATE in our application if we want to be able to open the files.
>>>>
>>>Yes, you need to combine 4 with whatever setting you are using now, SET TABLEVALIDATE TO 4 will disable all validations and is equivalent to SET TABLEVALIDATE TO 0 in that sense.
>>
>>I think we're using VFP default now.
>>>
>>>
>>>>The records still may be locked, right? But only the records that were updated, not all the records in the file. Am I right here?
>>>>
>>>VFP may choose to lock the file rather than locking individual records, it all depends.
>>>
>>
>>Depends on what? We're inserting new records into several tables.
>
>One difference would be APPEND, which I understand locks the header for the duration of the append. I guess that would extend to the end of a transaction if transactions are involved.

I believe he is doing insert, also, as I said, all insertions and updates (if any) happen outside the transaction. The transaction is only used after the process is finished and it's time to commit the changes.