I apologize.. it was more of an idea than an actual peice of code. I didn't see it written anywhere in the other peices, so i thought i'd throw it out there. If someone is interested in finding the best way to parse something then it's best to see or try as many options as possible before determining what is best. The code can definately be more concise or made better and no, I wouldn't use the specific code in a program, but it would be similar. The '4' along with any other part that is not to your liking can be modified depending on the needs of the app or desire of the programmer. That's the great thing about perl... there are twenty ways to do something and twenty diff opinions on what is best...