>If I use an incrementing number as a surrogate primary key, why should I make it a character field? Tastrade does that, and I've heard that it's the thing to do. But a key like this is not useful for ordering the records, and therefore would not be part of compound index expressions. Wouldn't it be better to use a double field?

Bret,
For a few months, Mac Rubel was doing a series on using Intergers for surrogate keys in Foxpro Advisor. You may want to take a look at this series of articles, since he is ALOT more knowledgeable on the subject than me..

I can tell the gist of what I gleened from the articles:
Use intergers for surrogate keys because they take up less storage space and that they also will upsize easier..

Thanx,

Tony Miller
Vancouver, Wa