Well thank you for all your help Swiftone. I'm now fairly convinced that we are experiencing some sort of timeout problem. I've gotten the code to work in and outside the loop, but for small time ranges. Plus sometimes the same query will work when it previously didn't. I think there is something wrong with our aml_read since the 4.3.3 AIX conversion that is the culprit. I will keep looking at it but thanks again for helping me.

Bryan

Does aml_read hit a database for data? Does the database have a no_flood option or login_limit function that prevents an out of control process from making too many connections in a short period? Does aml_read leave db connections hanging after it exits?

I've seen this sort of a problem before. Sybase and many other DBs will freak if you hit them too fast with the same login/request. They protect themselves by dropping connections. That is why things like Apache::AUTH_DBI cache authentication lookups, a webserver can beat a DB to death just with authentication. That could explain why it works once but not in a loop.

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