Hello,
I need your valuable experience with using Oledb.

I had a web service which was using VFPoledb for data connectivity and doing CRUDs. Due to the bloating tables, we decided to try VFPA but before applying VFPA to the Foxpro side of the project, we had to make sure that we use an Oledb driver other than VFPoledb for the web service (because VFPoledb doesn't work with big tables), so I switched to another OLEDB driver which is called AdvantageOledb and started testing it.
Now, it looks like even without having VFPA in place, my tables are not bloating any more!

So, would you please forgive my limited knowledge and confirm if the drivers would have different behaviors for storing/removing data that can affect bloating behavior?
I probably won't need to use VFPA for now.

Thank you,
Kathy

Hi,

only a dim memory from YEARS ago discussing features to implement with Joachim, who was lead honcho for ADS: Advantage can use deleted records for Append/Insert operations (IIRC that is the default) which does stop unhindered bloat, but might have an impact on Search/Join time, as newly created sequential PK will be not in the sequence of physical records. Tables will not shrink but only grow if all deleted recs are reused. Recall option for deleted records not possible within Advantage, via HEX editor possible for not reused records. There was a way to stop that behaviour/be more in line with vfp, but I am not sure if you have to use a special table type or if you can set behaviour as you can set others like large tables. NB: Not certain if/how much that goes for memo entries as well!

HTH

Thank you so much for the helpful information Thomas.
We don't have that much deletion and we do pack the table on a regular basis but we used to have huge memo bloating that seem to be solved now.
I'm wondering if you had any info on this as well and I would appreciate if you could share.
Thank you again,
Kathy