>I am using the VFP tables. I have a situation where, you enter a record and the user enters a unique key. The record is then deleted. Later another record with the same key is entered. an error occurs regarding the uniqueness of the key. Why does this error occur. When I browse the VFP table I do see that the old record is there and marked for deletetion. Is there a way to avoid this problem with out packing and reindexing the table?

As everyone else has said, the record is still present until PACKED. If it's an integer key, flip it negative when you delete the record.