Carl> I have half-heartedly tried to learn regexps before, but always Carl> given up after reading about the basics. Just out of curiosity, what editor do you use? Reading and doing are two different things. Carl> ... the famed saying of Jamie Zawinski ("Some people, when Carl> confronted with a problem, think 'I know, I'll use regular Carl> expressions.' Now they have two problems.") is not highly Carl> motivating. :-D Sure, but that addresses the topic of some peoples' desire to use regular expressions to parse everything from LL1 grammars to the tea leaves in the bottom of a cup. If you use them in an environment where there is almost no penalty for mistakes (incremental search) I think you will quickly gain an understanding of the syntax. Then your challenge will be not to fall into Jamie's re tar pit. ;-) Skip