Hi guys I managed to use the "split" and "join" functions to achieve what I wanted. Many thanks for those who started thinking about a possible approach. Tony
-----Original Message----- From: Ho, Tony Sent: 21 March 2002 20:37 To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: Assigning chunks into variables Hi guys I was wondering if you could help me. I have the following string: 2010:abc:def:ghi If I go through this string and find the first colon (:), I want to assign everything before that colon into variable1 I would like to assign the rest of the string after the first colon into variable2. Therefore, variable1 = 2010 variable2 = abc:def:ghi I was wondering how I can approach this ? I would be most grateful Thanks in advance Tony