Thanks for the data, guys... you made some very good points. I guess that the primary considerations are that A) Checking line-by-line allows the loop to quit when it finds a match, so the whole file need not be read unless the match is on the LAST line, and B) I am working with files of unknown sizes - although it is unlikely that any would be extremely large, it is possible. I'll embrace the joy that is line-by-line.

By the way, I know my example code sucked... the real code is much nicer, but too involved to include in its entirety.

Alan "Hot Pastrami" Bellows
-Sitting calmly with scissors-