Is this a common practice to amend a claim by striking through every word in the original claim?

Question

1. Is this a common practice to amend a claim by striking through the entire text of the claim and introducing completely new text, instead canceling the claim and introducing a new claim. I mean no word of the original claim remains in the amended claim.

2. When claims are cancelled, for example claims 2-4 in a patent application with 7 claims, does the patent after being issued also contain the same numbering as during prosecution and the claims have numbers 1,5,6,7 and there are no claims numbered 2,3,4?

Answer 1

It is not at all common practice to cross out all of the words and replace them with other words. Just cancel the claim and add a new one at the end, using the next number. In the U.S. the original claim numbering is maintained until after allowance. As part of the process of preparation for issuing a granted patent the claims are renumbered.