thanks naomi - that would work as well. I think Al's solution is going to hold up.
k
>>In the following command (fln refers to file name)
>>
>>if fln = " "
>>fln = "Temp"
>>endif
>>
>>
>>i get this error message
>>
>>Operator/operand type mismatch
>>
>>I cannot find the point in my programming at which this variable becomes a numeric reference - but nonetheless Is there a command line i can run immediately before to check if fln is text variable, if not then change it to a text variable before the error message comes up.
>>
>>thanks
>>k
>
>if vartype(m.fln) = "C"
