W/o NOFILTER VFP may create filtered cursor by applying SET FILTER/SET FIELDS to the source table opened similar to USE...AGAIN. It cannot be done when SET EXACT and SET ANSI doesn't match. I don't think it's documented anywhere.
And, no, you cannot return deleted records as deleetd in a query if it doesn't create a filtered cursor.

>Ok, you're right with NOFILTER. But if I want deleted records returned to the cursor as deleted, I need to set DELETED, ANSI and EXACT to OFF (and not include the NOFILTER keyword). My question is simply, why do exact and ansi control this? Is it documented somewhere?
>
>>Sure it does. All deleted records are returned as undeleted for all combinations of SET EXACT and SET ANSI which is expected behavior for SET DELTED OFF.
>>
>>>I just tried it and it doesn't change anything. With EXACT ON (or ANSI ON) and using NOFILTER, I still get back the deleted record as a non-deleted record in the cursor. I appears to be EXACT and ANSI that are controlling whether or not the deleted record is brought back as a deleted record or as a non-deleted record.
>>>
>>>I wonder if it's just a bug. Hard to believe this is the intended behaviour - especially since the documentation seems to make no mention of it.