Robert,

None of the textbooks sitting here handy talk about B-tree sequential insertions. I'm sure you could find some information somewhere on the net inside of a deeply theoretical research paper if it's really that important. *s*

I still have a box of unpunched cards, they were the best thing for writing notes on.

>Thanks, the memory's going with age (that's my excuse, anyway) - I was given a rule of thumb to avoid ordered inserts, but that was long ago and far away...[creak, knocks pile of punch-cards to the floor]...as an aside - is it still a 'good' rule of thumb even with balancing code?