>Again, this method is not used for monster tables. I inherited a situation here were there are hundreds of small tables to be maintained. Slowly these are being consolidated. In the meantime, I use the pack-on-exit method to perform table maintenance during times when the tables are not being used. It is merely a means of using available time efficiently -- and it is more effective than I though it would be. Sometime during the week almost all of the small tables get packed at least once.

>A table that needs to be packed is listed in the packlist. If it is packed when the form is exited, it is removed from the packlist. Then during regular scheduled table maintenence, it is one less table to be dealt with.

You seem to have drilled a hole in time - and given your scenario (many relatively small tables), it's probably the best approach (apart from bringing the system down periodically just for packing). I'm almost sory my tables have very few deleted records, so I have no use for this idea, but I do like it... Just one more question - long time ago I had done some testing on this issue (in FP1.02 or so), and I decided a table was a candidate for packing when it exceeded the 10% of deleted records. What's your approach - when exactly do you say that a table needs packing?