Thanks! Is there any way i could.. instead of going till the end of the tabfile (while (<TABFILE>)) go till a variable which has initial value of lets say 10 and the in the next iteration(i increment that variable by 10) so my file now is read from 10 to 20... then 20-30 and so on and so forth ? if such a method is possible i believe my code would work ! the question is.. is it possible ?