>Ed,
>
>>Don't recirculate keys is the best solution. AN alternative that gives some partial success is to embed a FOR clause in the index, but recreation of the index can be an issue, it will not be usable for Rushmore optimization, and should you ever try to recall a recirculated key or do not properly regulate reallocation of n out-of-sequence key in recirculation, you invite lots of trouble. You also create problems if you ever move from the native VFP file system, whose concept of records flagged as deleted but still present is not very portable.
>
>Hmmm, When upgrading I wonder why you should include deleted records? If you don't upgrade the deleted records this should not be a problem at all.
>

Hmmmm...could it be that the concept of records flagged as deleted doesn't exist outside of the native xBASE environmentr? Naaah, couldn't be something as simple as that for a fully-clued expert in RDBMS theory to have overloked that, and relaize that the issue doesn't exist - it's just code that you need to rip out, and a new discrete mechanism for identifying holes in a sequence for recirculation. But far be it from em to question the experience of a skilled CS major with oodles of SQL Server background...