I’ve never heard that before. Although it’s been sometime since I’ve taken a class. I’d be interested in hearing the why. I feel both commands continue to have their uses. it depends on the situation.
INIT (alone) - This will reset all fields (except those in the primary key) to their default values. This command is ok if you code will handle assigning primary key values to avoid conflicts.
INIT + blank primary key fields - Use this if you also need to clear primary key values. An example might be when your primary key contains auto-increment fields. A CLEAR will accomplish the same thing.
CLEAR - Provides the additional step of clearing any global variables.