i chomped the values and it didn't help, then ovid, i checked the html, and turns out it was my own dumb fault- it was in the regex i used: @elements = split(/\|+/,$myvar); reading then writing back to a text file looking like this: 0|0|0|0 i should have used this: @elements = split(/\|/,$myvar); thanks though! is there a place in here when i could post potentially useful code bits for those seeking to accomplish the same thing i was doing? i was creating a simply survey.cgi to keep track of people's responses to a web poll.