okay, im obviously one of the people who would be classified as a "longtime listener firstime caller" if that wasnt already apparent. so please dont bash my head too much. but i realized that my last correction was now longer after all this trouble then the original one. well i got it back on top and heres how, [0-9] is a waste when \d works just as well . so my final answer kind and patient people is if(/^[12]?\d?\d$/&$_<256)}. now i crawl in my hole and read more gory details thank you and goodnight =) -- http://www.6x4.org "The 3 great virtues of a programmer: Laziness,Impatience, and hubris. --Larry Wall ==== Want to unsubscribe from Fun With Perl? Well, if you insist... ==== Send email to <fwp-request@technofile.org> with message _body_ ==== unsubscribe