Thank you kcott and Anonymous Monk.

Those are helpfull tips. I DId try

1 pricecalc

and

$amastringsentback9=Price_calc::get_ama($amastringsent);

$amastringsentback9 comes up with an empty string however code in Price_calc works fine;

( I forget to include the 1; in the post but it is is in there)