Jim,

>>That's a good point Jim. Let me check that I understand you, if I go INSERT INTO (PKey) VALUES (akeyvalue).... into a buffered table it doesn't get to the underlying table until TableUpdate() anyway, so the server index is only updated after that point, so it doesn't matter whether or not I use append blank or insert??
>>You seem to be implying that INSERT INTO ... can't create a blank record in a buffered table.
>
>David,
>
>INSERT INTO will create a blank record, but so will append blank. wITH BUFFERING THERE IS NOT DIFFERENCE:

Along these lines, I have discovered some behavior that I can't understand. If I:

1) Open a table with a primary key index
2) Set buffering to 5 - optimistic table
3) Go to a record and issue a scatter memvar
4) Issue "insert into mytable from memvar" OR append blank/gather
5) Move the record pointer off that record
- I get a "Uniqueness of primary key violated" error, even though I haven't issued a TABLEUPDATE().

This would seem to indicate that there is some 'updating' of the index happening before the TABLEUPDATE() is issued. I can sort of understand why that would happen in this situation. But, if I:

A) "Set deleted on" to ignore deleted records
B) Do steps 1-3 above
C) Delete the record I used for the SCATTER MEMVAR
D) Do steps 4 and 5 above
- I get the same error message, even though the first record was deleted and "set deleted" is on.

At first I thought that moving the record pointer was causing a TABLEUPDATE() the way it does when row buffering is on, but if I just add a record that doesn't have a duplicate primary key, move the record pointer and then close the table without a TABLEUPDATE(), the record doesn't stay. This seems to be consistent with how table buffering is supposed to work, but isn't very consistent with the behavior I described above.

This is causing a problem for me, partly because of poor table design. Unfortunately, I inherited the table design and can't really go back and change it now. Regardless though, this behavior doesn't make sense to me. Can you shed some light on this?

Thanks!