>>>>>>Hi all,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I have to do an Alter Table command on an indexed table. Am I loosing the index when I do that? And if so, how can I avoid it?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>AFAIK No. There is no warning of such in Help, I've never heard of it and, indeed, I['ve done many an ALTER TABLE without even considering this.
>>>>>
>>>>>Howevr, if your alteration produces a new index, or, say, deletes a field that is already indexed, then obviously this will have an effect on your CDX file.
>>>>>
>>>>It works differently for tables and cursors. What you describe is true for tables, while cursors will lose index for any ALTER TABLE command.
>>>
>>>Aye, well he did say table.
>>
>>Right, but description of the problem pointed to a cursor. It is a rare case when table needs to be created and then altered in run-time, such scenario usually implies cursor.
>
>I have a good example of where one does. I create a Census table, with keys, then I have to read a spreadsheet to find out what the domains of the census are, to add to the table, e.g. "Unemployed females 0-2 children", et al.

Most likely, you should design the table assuming all scenarios, i.e. once-in-place data structure will be able to accept any input.