Your replies are ABSOLUTELY amazing! Code that is commented and clear enough for newbie/novice me to follow AND even tested a bit! What more could I ask for? NOT much! :)
I have no idea of how long y'all worked on those replies, but let me say again: It's a slightly delayed Christmas gift! Shouting THANKS is not quite enough, but will have to do!

We are now up to DAYS (maybe even a WEEK-10days) of work (and frustration) that you have saved me! The first year anniversary of my Chat-m-room is on Jan 27th, and I may be able to have a search function ready by then! :) :)

Yes, it is true that users cannot use HTML (to block spammers) and thus the format of code is tightly controlled. The layout/sample I gave above shows all the possible embedded code. And I'm able to edit history (and chg new output for current month) to reformat slightly if needed.

I presumed that by giving full details of my data, it made it easier to give a reply.

The only thing I see that I really need to add to pgrm output is my common page header/footer code to wrap around the "dump" of comments, as that is how they show on history pages.
So the output from the first but longer pgrm is a bit more appropriate for my situation, since it has the raw data output.

In reply to Re^2: Search function for guestbook history? by JCHallgren
in thread Search function for guestbook history? by JCHallgren

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