What about just reading everything in, sorting it, and then remove the duplicates? Also, didn't someone about two or three months ago have a similar problem? I seem to remember something about a check for uniqueness. Sort of like "There can be only one!" from Highlander. :-) I would suggest looking at the Perl Archive web page. (Although I've forgotten the URL for it I have it at home [but that doesn't do you any good now does it?].) Anyway, I remember someone posted something about ensuring that only one of a given record is ever read in. But I do not remember exactly how to do it. If I find it at home tonight I'll e-mail myself here at work and send it when I get in tomorrow. :-) G'night everyone! :-) ***** Want to unsubscribe from this list? ***** Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch