Woops. That second trivial example should be: @lines = split("\n",$_); foreach (@lines) { #uses $_ if (/\n/) { next;} #no good, split took those if (/''/) { next;} #no good, always true if (/undef/) { next;} #no good, well I had to try it if ($_ eq undef) { next;} #ok if (!$_) { next; } #ok } --fred ***** Want to unsubscribe from this list? ***** Send mail with body "unsubscribe" to mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch