thanks simon, i know i could have programmed the above task in basic fairly quickly so i decided to install borlands and have a go at in c++, thing is it is the first time i've tried any programming on a pc and i'm not really sure what i'm doing with this compiler...

i've installed it and had the little box up that says something about converting text files but im not really sure what to do with it to get a script in and try to get it running..

could you give me a couple of pointers with it to get me started,sorry for been so lame, but as soon as i get off the ground i think i might make fairly good progress..thanks again.

ivan.