>> But with a clustered index, I'd be almost stunned if they didn't come back in order.
Thanks Kevin. Main concern involved the transaction around a table-buffered update in VFP, with possibility of rows saved into freed-up space rather than appended to the end. I agree it would make sense for Identity to be assigned in sequence, if that's what the transaction definitely does- and I agree it seems to at least in 2021....
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
