thanks for all the help I think I'm near enough on the right track. Thanks especially for telling me to use warnings and strict because i didn't know how useful they were so I didn't bother using them. Oh yeah the reason why i'm writing to the answer file is because i'm making a seperate program to mark the answers. It's an excercise my mate set but he won't tell me how to do it he said I'd learn more from this site. cheers again.