Hi Walter,

I'm not an expert on this, but I did test the deleted() tag a year ago and had the same results as you.
For the test I took a copy of my application 87 tables. I took the 20 most used SQL-SELECT by the users and run those SELECTs with and without the tag. I found the performance to be about the same.
When the test was run in a LAN, sometimes the queries were faster without the DELETED() tag; I guess that is because you have to "download" the index file, which is bigger.

As I don't like to have things "just in case", I got rid of the DELETED() tags. I think that having things "just in case" is a small path toward bloated software.

Just my 2 cents,
Javier.

>Hi Jon,
>
>If you don't have a lot of deleted records in your table, there are only a few very specific circumstances that justify the use of DELETED() indexes.
>
>1. Allow the use of filtered resultsets of SQL-SELECT. Since this seldom a wanted thing, this is not a real good argument.
>
>2. Using the COUNT command on large tables.
>
>3. Finding a deleted record, though you better might use a INDEX ON .T. FOR DELETED() TAG del for that.
>
>For all other cases the use of DELETED() is complete bogus and never helps in performance issues.
>Esspecially in cases where the production app is running on a network, it could seriously degrade your performance.
>
>A few years ago, I did protest to a few MVPs/MCPs because of the use of it. I took a lot of examples and persistence to let them see the DELETED() tag was more or a burden than a help. Yes, I'm an authority on this forum regarding this subject and do have a lot of experience in optimizing queries. The missleading thing is as hilmar said is that 'full optimization' does not stand for optimal optimization.
>
>I started my rant in Thread ID: 198031 and Thread ID: 196021, more than five years ago. Shortly after this discussion an article about the issue has been written in FoxPro Advisor.
>You'll see that it took me quite a bit of effort to convince well known VFP people about the myth of the DELETED() tag.
>
>Conclusion: If you don't really need it, don't use them.
>
>Walter,