Yes and no...
you can
Index on deleted() tag isdelete

This still won't break the unique key that may be your CUST_ID field... This still can not be duplicated, even if is marked for deletion. However lets say you have

Record 1 Cust ID = 10
Record 2 Cust ID = 11 (This one is deleted)
Record 3 Cust ID = 12
Record 4 Cust ID = 13
Record 5 Cust ID = 14 (This one also is deleted)

And a user wants to add a new customer... Look for the first deleted record and
re-use it... (provided set delete is off so all deleted records are visible to the seek function

if seek( .t., "customer", "isdelete" )  && value, alias, index tag used
   */ Now we found it, lets UNDELETE it and re-use this ID
   recall
else
   */ No more deleted records to recycle, you must add a new one
   */ either append blank, or whatever function you need to assign
   */ the next customer ID available...
   append blank 
endif

*/ Now, the customer table is ready to be used with the current record 
*/ that has been either recalled (undeleted) or append blank (no more deleted)

>Did I understand you correctly? Can you add deleted() to your index? Say I have two records that both have the same cust_id, but one record is deleted. Could I have cust_id has my primary index, with somehow including the deleted()?
>
>Brenda
>