>1) Why isn't there at least an OPTION in VFP to have DELETED primary or >candidate keys treated as non-existent records which can be overwritten >according to the command presently being attempted? because if you RECALL the record the uniqueness will be violated - if you want to recycle deleted keys you have to implement it yourself - the best strategy IMHO is to have primery keys generated automatically, so there will not be a connection to the data or problem with skipped values etc. >2) Why is this simple fact NOT mentioned at all in the discussions >regarding primary keys or candidate keys? [ each of us has to learn this >for ourselves, the hard way] as Nike says - just do it - you can write an article on this , and we'll consider it for the VFUG newsletter (g) Arnon