I thank everyone for their replies so far. I have updated the input examples. INREC1 does not meet the specs as the word ekey= is in not in elements2. INREC2 does meet the specs so it blanks the data following ekey= and moves the data it found to the end of the array. The thing to keep in mind is that I have 550 columns and I have to check 10 of those for 4 different words. If found I must blank what follows those words and then move the data I blanked to the end of the array.