>>PMFJI. There's interesting information about CDX bloat at http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~CDXBloat~VFP.
>
>PMFJI? Sorry, I still don't know that one. :)

You can 'Enable acronyms' from the Tools menu.

>I've read that information beforehand indeed. However, it's not bloat that I'm interested in. I'm interested in the speed and correctness issues. And restricted to vfp7sp1 and newer. Let me repeat what I said in other messages in this thread:
>
>The original statement of DavidF was that "bloat is something that affects performance" and that therefore "routine reindexing is prudent [...]". I have serious doubts about this position, well okay, under 'normal' circumstances. By the way, let not this thread become another discussion about bloat itself please. For that's not the issue I'm interested in, for now. Although bloat certainly is an issue if very large cdx-files are about to fill up an entire disk, in my case I'm only interested in the performance (=speed) and 'correctness' issues of (re)indexing.
>My view is: Under normal circumstances, REINDEX, or its drastic equivalent, will NOT improve performance. Therefore there's no need to advice superusers to regularly start the menu-option that will reindex all tables. The only time such an advice is ok, is when the SUPERuser has the feeling that an index has become outdated or corrupt. But even then it's often an even better advice to make a call to the helpdesk or developer.

I know for a fact that index bloat can significantly slow down queries. I agree with David about regular reindexing for application with heavy updates of index keys.

>Let me also explain more clearly what I mean with 'correctness'. It's another word for 'correct indexes'. If you offer superusers the option to reindex, then these superusers will regularly fear that indexes may become incorrect, thus causing incorrect retrieval of data. For example, they may assume that certain records are no longer displayed due to incorrect indexes and they think that a reindex will let the missing record reappear. I think this is too often a false perception and a reindex gives false hope. If an incorrect index is really at stake, then a call to the developer/helpdesk is a better reaction to the situation than a reindex.

I'm not following you here. Proper reindexing does fix index corruption. So why it's bad?
And why it's better to call developer/help desk to get the same advice "Run reindex"? And again, it's more of procedural question, who superuser is. It could be developer/help desk.

>In other words, a reindex menu-option gives the user a false feeling of control over speed and correctness. Furthermore, while the superuser reindexes, other users cannot use the application. Sometimes that'll take minutes, in other applications it may take an hour or so. Precious time ... for nothing but false expectations.

Reindexing is a maintenance operation to which regular user wouldn't have access anyway. Usualy, it's also scheduled in off-houres in order not to affect regular system operations.

Bottom line, it's better to have reindex option in your application in case you or your users'll need it at some point. Should it be used on regular basis, depends on many factors.