GOT IT!!!!!! EUREKA!
great stuff guys. thanks very much for the help. I have other applications of this that will come in very handy.

k

>

>lcStr = "a [1] b [2] c [3] d [4] e [5] ... [9]"
>loRegEx = NEWOBJECT("VBScript.RegExp")
>loRegEx.Pattern = "\[([1-9])\]"
>loRegEx.Global = .T.
>lcNewStr = loRegEx.Replace(lcStr, "[0$1]")
>
>? lcStr
>? lcNewStr
>

>
>>>Try the following:
>>>

>>>oRegEx = NEWOBJECT("VBScript.RegExp")
>>>oRegEx.Pattern = "\[(\d)\]"
>>>cFile = oRegEx.Replace(cFile, "[0$1]")
>>>

>>
>>thanks rob - no effect i'm afraid but i'm wondering if this is addressing the change i am looking for (I am trying to understand your replace code "[0$1]" and have modified it a couple of times without success.
>>
>>basically the text looks something like this
>>
>>asdfghjkl [1]
>>
>>and i want it to look like this
>>
>>asdfghjkl [01]
>>
>>
>>thanks
>>k