it isn't really that i will want to change it to an integer anyway. the script uses a table to reference a value to a key, if the key is a group of letters, that code tells the script to do something. if the value is a number, it means an equipment failure. The thing is, all the values come out as strings (they are read from a text file). so what you put first with the try/except looks like my best answer.
thanks, shawn -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
