>Hey SB
>
>That makes sense too. Its obviously a complicated process to manage the FPT file and I think VFP does it pretty good! I have certainly used memo fields in my own projects to great use so I have no complaint about the FPT bloat. I can deal with that and work around it like everyone else :)
>
>Just out of interest - if the file is not opened in shared access mode and you replace memo field with smaller data is it also written to end of FPT file?
>

No. If table is open in exclusive mode and replcement data is smaller or the same size as the space reserved for the memo field, than VFP does in-place update.