What do you want, get your job done quickly and easily, or an elegant solution? :)

>I was hoping for something elegant. ... {smile>}
>Peter
>
>
>>Like I wrote, dump the text to a textfile, and import it into a cursor, one record per line. Create a function to check for valid dates, something like

>>Function okdata
>>Lparameters lcText
>>If !Inlist(Getwordnum(lcText,1,' ,'),'January','February','March','April','May','June','July','August','September','October','November','December')
>>   Return .f.
>>Endif       
>>Return Between(Val(Getwordnum(lcText,2,' ,')),1,31) And Val(Getwordnum(lcText,3,' ,'))>1950

>>locate for okdate(yourfield)
>>skip
>>?'Name = ' + yourfield
>>skip
>>?'Adress1 = ' + yourfield

>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>oDoc = oWord.oDocuments.Open(....)
>>>cContent = oDoc.Content()
>>>
>>>gives me the text
>>>
>>>there could be some stuff prior to the date and address
>>>but somewhere there is a date and then the name/address like:
>>>
>>>....
>>>October 9,2008
>>>
>>>Mr Tore Bleken
>>>123 Fjord Bld.
>>>Stokke, CT 06279
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>dear....
>>>
>>>
>>>......
>>>.....
>>>.....
>>>
>>>and so on
>>>
>>>cContent gets placed into a memo field
>>>once I get the name I can redo it into lastname, fisrtname
>>>
>>>locate it in the contacts table, get the id and update the cletters table with the contact_id
>>>
>>>and so on
>>>
>>>the tricj is finding the name/address in the content
>>>if i COULD at least find the date with a regex I could do the rest fairly easyly
>>>Peter
>>>
>>>>If I understand correctly, you have these lines after each other in the letter:
>>>>Date
>>>>Name
>>>>Address1
>>>>Address2
>>>>Address3
>>>>
>>>>If the date format is fixed, you can convert the letters, one by one, to a text file. Create a cursor with structure c(255), and append from the text file. Scan the cursor, and find the record which contains a legal date. The next record is the name you are looking for.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>July 12, 2007
>>>>>
>>>>>if i can find this I would be all set, because the name and address comes after it
>>>>>
>>>>>Peter
>>>>>
>>>>>>Hi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Not neccessarily impossible - though likely not to be easy.
>>>>>>