I knew the behvior differences between row and table buffering (except for this SQL Select with buffering = .t. issue, which I don't find I need much at all), but I'd not heard that row buffering was done in a kludgey way. I tend to use row buffering on the main table being edited (like in an invoice header table) and table buffering on the child table (usually a view or equivalent). Thanks for the reply.

>Hi Russell,
>
>> What's the real answer here?
>
>Use table buffering. Row buffering is something that VFP simulates behind the scenes with all kind of exceptional code. Table buffering is VFP's native buffering. There is no reason to use row buffering, unless the program doesn't care when data is written and buffering is just there as a little convenience for the user. But then you wouldn't be asking if VFP updates data or not...