>The other case is where very few deletes occur, and it's next to impossible to determine what, if any, optimal table size. In this case, tables with production records come to mind. These tables are added to daily with very few, if any deletes occuring. There's little, if any, reason to try to "re-cycle" since the deletes are few and far between. Further, since all the reports are produced by queries, having to exclude deleted records would serve to slow the reporting process. However, because deletes can happen, I have to account for them, and thus use PACK.

George,

If any record may be deleted at any time you must account for them in the query anyway, so what is the difference if they stick wround as deleted until they are reused or you pack the table?

I already said the whole issue is moot with very small tables. However, very small tables have a terrible habit of becomming large tables later on.