Thanks Zaxo, works a treat! Also thanks to Robartes for the Data::Dumper suggestion, it looks like an interesting alternative I ought to explore. I hope to post the complete code in a day or so, since this is very first Perl program I have ever written (hey, we all have to start somewhere) and I am sure the collective wisdom of the Monks will vastly improve my Initiate-level effort. Cheers, mooseboy