Like this? lac at ratthing-b246:~$ python Python 2.1 (#3, May 26 2001, 17:43:53) [GCC 2.95.2 20000220 (Debian GNU/Linux)] on linux2 Type "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> front='daily_' >>> back='count' >>> daily_count=12345 >>> eval(front+back) 12345 >>> Laura