Hey man. Thanks for your input. Sure, that's (partly) what I'm looking for. But the thing is I'm so new to perl that I literally "don't know what it is I don't know". honestly! Could you possibly, or rather would you care to be more specific about my "misconceptions about the operation of perl"? But I appreciate the confirmation that I was in headed in the right general direction. So, if you don't want to write a book about my "misconceptions" I can certainly understand.