Larry

I think there are some untouched issues in this discussion which have been bothering me for a while. In a multi-user situation I ran into a series of problems where two users had the same record, and updates were missed, particularly where there were a series of files to update (in code).

I seem to have solved most of these by switching buffering from 5 to 3 just prior to the update cycle, and resetting on completion. I also force a seek on each of the tables, as I am not sure that in locking the records I have the most current version. All of the Fox books are quite vague on this.

Suppose two users have the same record. One locks, updates,and releases his copy. The other finishes his phone call, and then goes through the same process.
If locking, or changing the buffering to 3 refreshes the user copy in the process all is well. If not, there is a problem.

Geoff

>Buffering = 5 doesn't involve any file level locking. What is does, however, is allow you to modify multiple records and when a tableupdate() is issued, it goes through and locks each record that was changed and changes it. After the changes are made, all the locks are released.
>
>The difference between 3 and 5 is the ability to move around the table and not have VFP do the work for you. You are the "master of your domain". It's a great feeling *s*!