>Do you know how SQL Server gets away with it (just wondering)? Is it because of SQL Server stores data in "pages" so that a delete of record 90 requires only a reshuffling of the data page associated with record 90? Or is it because SQL Server writes to disk in a different way than VFP (SQL Server bypasses aspects of the OS, doesn't it?)?
I don't work with SQL Server.
I read some Oracle documentation, and it seems that in this case, several records are in some sort of "blocks", and for efficiency, a certain percentage of the space always has to remain free. It seems that Oracle doesn't use fixed-length records.
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