Your right. commenting out the last if.. results in identical output. The fact that it results in the array being split exactly at the place I wanted (with this data set) is purely coincidental. How lucky can you be? (Might be an interesting quirk to use in an obfu sometime).

I guess I should have recognised something was up when I noticed the if condition was inverted...as I typed up the question, but I didn't :(

I am amazed how two non-vocal errors can conspire to apparently deliver exactly the output that I require! I shouldn't be, I've seen it before a few times, but I am anyway!

Thanks.

Anyone know of an abbottoire going cheap?