Hi Bob

In fact, SET KEY should be faster than SET FILTER in most cases. SET FILTER requires VFP to examine the available indexes and produce "bitmaps". This process takes time.

>The Online Help explains it very well but I would summarize the difference in 'Set Key' command has to have a tag/order set on the expression, 'Set Filter' doesn't. You will find that 'Set Filter to' expression is faster when the expression is optimized.
>
>I think most developers prefer for 'Set Filter' command because of its flexibility.