Chuck if a.equals("") is one of my least favourite Java statements because it's awfully inefficient. The VM has to create an object just for comparison, which when in a repetitive loop, can be very slow.
if a.length()==0 is much nicer :) John _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org attend wwrug11 www.wwrug.com ARSList: "Where the Answers Are"