>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?

SergeyB gave you the answer, but I want to add that you can only get the result you "need" if there is only 1 table involved in the SELECT and there are no calculated/derived fields.
So, for safety's sake, I'd suggest some other technique. ToreB had a reasonable one I think.

cheers

>
>>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.