I believe the fun factor is slightly higher in this version; $_="aaabbbbccaaajjjcccooaaabbbbjjjjjaeefcccooaaabbbbjjaajj"; for($n=0;/(.{$n,}).*\1/;$n=length($1)+1){$s=$1;}; print "$s\n"; It could probably do with some further obfuscation! ==== Want to unsubscribe from Fun With Perl? ==== Well, if you insist... Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to ==== fwp-request@technofile.org