Thanks to some SuSE lists members I could get my PERL program running perfectly and have even refined it to filter the extracted records in a number of selectable ways. Problem: I run and do all my development on SuSE. My supervisors only know Windows ... sigh .....sigh ... sigh ... I know PERL is cross-platform and a PERL version does exist also for Windos/XP I've just opened the web site from which I can download PERL foe WINDOS: http://www.activestate.com/ But I feel at a loss about which product/code I can suggest my supervisors for downloading as there are many choices. In addition, is the PERL version for Windows available for free as it is for Linux ??? I guess it isn't .... Thank you very much for all your help. regards, maura