When I get the code to work / understand it I will indeed give whoevers code works first / ends up chosen 20 dollars via paypal, you have my word. I am going to have to look through these replies and figure out what exactly the code is doing, and get it working, but that should not take too long. Simplicity is appreciated in selecting the solution considering my beginners coding level cannot really interpret most of what Perl is doing. Both of you have my gratitude