>Why should we not use SET DELETED ON? The on-line help for VFP 3.0 and 5.0 says "Queries that use DELETED() to test the status of records can be optimized ... if the table is indexed on DELETED()." I ran some test queries, and yes, now there's a slight delay -- but still it's enormously faster with the DELETED() tag than without it.
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>What am I missing?

See my other reply to Todd Burstain about this situation.