PACK
Removes all records from a .DBF table that have been marked as deleted. Adding an autoincrement field will automatically pack a .DBF table.
Syntax
PACK
Description
Use PACK to remove records from the current .DBF table that were previously marked as deleted by the DELETE command. You must open the table for exclusive use before using PACK.
After you execute a PACK command, the disk space used by the deleted records is reclaimed when the table is closed. All open index files are automatically re-indexed after PACK is executed. (Use REINDEX to update closed indexes.)
Use PACK with caution. Records that have been marked for deletion but not yet eliminated with PACK can be undeleted and restored to a table using RECALL. Records eliminated with PACK are permanently lost and can't be recovered.
SET DELETED ON provides many of the benefits of PACK without actually removing records from a table. With SET DELETED ON, most commands function as if records marked for deletion had been eliminated from a table.
Because PACK requires the exclusive use of a table, it may be difficult to find a time to PACK a table for applications that run continuously. Also for large tables, PACK is time-consuming and requires enough disk space to make a copy of the table. Consider recycling deleted records instead, which is quicker and safer. For an example of how to implement record recycling, see the examples for APPEND and BLANK.
To permanently remove all records of the current table in one step, use the ZAP command.
OODML
Use the Database object’s packTable( ) method.