Well it won't make sense and I still don't understand it but I came across files that behaved as though they had multiple \n hidden on the same line. If that is even possible? I figured it out when I read a line, chomped it, but still had three blank lines between in and the next line with text. However, if I were to chomp the string(line) again, I only had two blank lines between the first line with text and the next line with text. I wish I remembered what it was but I could have sworn I used a text editor some time in the past that allowed you to see \c \t \n etc etc. Would have been helpful.