Hmmm. Yes, you could well be right about each one requiring a separate flag, although that's not how I originally read the requirement. At least our anonymous brother has 2 marginally differing approaches to choose between. The whole thing does have something of an XY ring to it. Perhaps we'll find out.

Thank you so much guys.. so the primary function of the code is to search through the text files in the folder and print every line that includes a the exact match to the number (contained within the line). the secondary requirement is that IF after searching through all the files no single match is found of the number then print at the bottom that it was not matched

this is a sample of the data:

Port      Name               Status       Vlan       Duplex  Speed
Fa0/1     Sohnsons           connected    1404         full    100 
Fa0/2     Sohnsons           connected    1404         full    100
Fa0/3     XYZ                connected    1221         full    100
Fa0/4     Sohnsons           notconnect   1404         full    100
[download]

If you searched the files for 3 number (1404,1221,1234) 1234 would not be matched and printed, thus we would want "1234 not matched" printed. The code you presented worked really well for a single search, but we need to search multiple values

Thanks for this clarification. In that case, QM's solution should be precisely what you need. Try that and see how you get on.