Ever accidentally put 'next if' in a subroutine to end further processing of that sub? 'return undef if' returns out of the sub as expected, but 'next' "magically" jumps out of the sub and iterates your loop miles away. :) D'oh! Jay Hannah Software Architect jhannah@mutationgrid.com | http://mutationgrid.com | 1-402-598-7782